Class _ 
Book. 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 




IMMORTALITY. 

A 

SCIENTIFIC PROOF 

OF 

LIFE AFTER DEATH, 



BY 

EDMUND SHAFTESBURY. 

Commencing with Facts, 

Continuing with Facts, 

Concluding with Facts. 

And Avoiding all Reference to Religious or 
Theological Discussions. 

STATEMENT. 

" I oppose no sect and no creed, My religion is a personal 
accountability to the God of the Bible, Religion, however, is 
founded upon faith. Apart from such sources of guidance, there 
are certain facts in the universe that establish beyond doubt the 
immortality of the human soul. The demonstration of life beyond 
the grave, as set forth in the present volume, is based upon 
those facts and not upon religion, inspiration, prophecy, specula- 
tion or psychic yearnings." — Shaftesbury. 



1898: 

PUBLISHED BY 

MARTYN COLLEGE PRESS ASSO 

WASHINGTON, D. C. 



TWO COPIES RECEIVED 




£A 



Copyrighted, 189S, 



MAKTYN COLLEGE PEESS ASSOCIATION. 

All Rights Reserved. 



DEDICATION. 



^HIS edifice is erecbed as a refuse for brjo^e \^r;o falber 
ii) bt>e pre^epC© of earbr/s profour;de^b n>y^beries. 
lbs corr)er=^bor;e is laid ii) bt)e solid rock of facbs. 
lbs trails are reared Heaverj^ard. 
lbs ^pire poii)b^ bo God. 

Upor> bl>e dedicabioi)=bat>leb I isrould inscribe bt>e r;an)e 
of or>e ^rrjose life i<? rounded full of s^eeb perfection ; rny 
rjelprneeb. 

Sincerely, 

EDMUND SHAFTESBURY. 



PREFACE. 



THIS book is prepared upon a new line of argument, in every 
respect different from all other works that have dealt with 
the subject of eternal life. There are many facts in nature 
that have been overlooked by students, or else have never 
been marshaled for this purpose. 

Without depreciating the value of the many treatises on im- 
mortality, it is nevertheless true that there is not one in existence, 
nor has there ever been one produced, to the knowledge of man- 
kind, that did not arrive at its illuminated conclusions through 
fields of speculation and insubstantial assumptions. 

A great lawyer was engaged by a wealthy clergyman to defend 
a deacon who had killed a child on slight provocation. The lawyer 
took the case, with the understanding that the clergyman should 
produce evidence to prove that the deacon Avas innocent. This 
was agreed to. On the day before the trial the lawyer informed 
the preacher that no satisfactory evidence had been forthcoming, 
and that, unless something was done by daybreak, he would 
abandon the case. At midnight he was awakened by a frantic 
ringing of his door-bell. Putting his head out of the upper 
window, he shouted, "Who's there?' 7 — "The clergyman." — "Well, 
what have you found?'* — "I have obtained absolute proof that the 
deacon is innocent." — The lawyer dressed, and admitted the excited 
though joyous parson. "Now for your evidence." — "'Well, sir, I fell 
asleep, and an angel came to me, right out of Heaven, and told 
me the deacon was innocent." — "Will the angel swear to that?'* — 
"He would if he was here." — "Well, get him here. Go to the clerk 
of the court and get a subpoena, and have that angel brought into 
court, and I'll do my best to clear the deacon." 

It is safe to say that the minister was fully satisfied of the 
conclusive nature of the proof; although the secular courts con- 
victed the man. And it is that class of testimony that furnishes 
to some reasoners convincing proof, likewise, of immortality. The 
present volume proceeds with evidence that would be admissible in 
a court of justice under the most stringent rules; and does not de- 
part from its chain of facts even for indulgence in the most in- 
nocent speculation. 



HOW TO PROCEED. 



IT IS the intention of the author of the present volume to 
satisfy the minds of his readers and students by producing an 
argument that shall carry its proof as the rails of a track 
direct the course of the locomotive. In order to he fully 
understood, the train of facts must he continuous and consecutive. 
There must he no departure from this rule; no jumping a short 
space here, or another space there. Each fact follows in logical 
sequence, building upon its predecessor, and strengthening the 
advance. To omit any step would be as unwise as to take a link 
out of the chain that held the anchor of a ship. 

In the course of reading that is laid out before you in these 
chapters, the methods employed in devouring a novel would prove 
disastrous. If you have a sincere desire to get at the truth, each 
page should be read understanding^ ; and to prove this, you are 
requested to adopt the plan that has been so successfully used by 
the greatest minds of earth; a plan that will do you a wonderful 
amount of good in all departments of study. It is this. As soon 
as a page is read, close the book, and repeat aloud each idea that 
has been stated on that page. The repetition aloud compels you 
to formulate the idea into words, and thus give it a real existence, 
no matter how poorly clothed it may be. Then re-examine the 
page to ascertain how much has escaped your memory. Now pass 
on to the next page. This process is a slow one, but it alone 
renders a study pleasurable. It makes the mind strong, quick, 
deep and clear. 

It may be argued that such a method requires time; but, sup- 
pose you rush hastily through the book and find that you are not 
convinced; you will be in the position of a juror who came into a 
case late, and found the evidence incoherent because he had lost 
much of it. There is no reason for getting to the end at once. 
Time is plentiful, and you have much of it at your command. It 
is hoped that, when you have finished the reading, you will have 
become master of every chapter and every page. 



CHAPTER J. 



BURNING AWAY BRIARS. 



ARMED with a key of promise, a dreamer climbed a 
ladder, the end of which extended beyond the clouds and 
was invisible. He had no difficulty in reaching the vapors, 
for they hung like a fog close to the earth ; but when he 
was on the point of mounting their summit, the ladder fell with 
every ascending step, and he could not rise. Then he decided 
to come down; but the same difficulty confronted him, the ladder 
moved in the opposite direction and left him in the clouds. The 
key bore the inscription: "With This Unlock the Door of 
Life." 

No living human being realizes what it means to be born 
into this world, what it means to exist from season to season, what 
it means to die; unless that being has been bathed in the vapors of 
absolute uncertainty. What sorrow is to the soul, a wholesome, 
all-pervading doubt is to the mind. In religion it makes faith 
possible, in science it makes investigation desirable. Perfect 
knowledge is the destroyer of faith, and the executioner of prog- 
ress. The individual who says, "I know I shall live agin/' is certain 
of it in the same sense that the good deacon was sure of his 
knowledge when he exclaimed, under oath, at a certain coroner's 
inquest, "I know that this is the body of my brother. Some thing's 
I am not sure of, but of this I am positive." His brother arrived at 
the inquest a few minutes later. The deacon was honest. Nor 
can we attack the sincerity of one who knows there is life after 
death, when to feel is to know. 

Such knowledge usually consists of a vehement shutting 
up of the mind against the process of thought; and the assumption 
of a positive belief incapable of change. The brain, at its best, 
is but a machine; it runs at will when so ordered; but it also 
possesses the faculty of setting itself in a certain channel, out of 
which it cannot escape, and from which it could not be deviated by 
the force of a sledge-hammer operated by an earthquake. It is a 
mistake to find fault with this faculty. The man who knows that 
the sun moves because he beholds it, is neither to be blamed nor 

(9) 



10 



IMMORTALITY 



pitied; lie commits no sin; and the only offence of which he might 
be guilty in such error would he to quarrel with the friend who 
explained to him the real fact. Disagreements are natural and 
legitimate; they cannot he avoided as long as human nature lacks 
perfection; they should be expected and tolerated; but they ought 
never to excite impatience or enmity. It seems strange that any 
sane man could torture his brother for believing that the earth 
was round. The saddest reflection of all is the real importance 
of the knowledge in dispute. 

Our dreamer in the clouds found himself suspended in 
mid air, without the power to rise or fall. That he had gone som& 
distance when he attempted to mount the summit of the vapors, 
and peer out into the open realms above him, was apparent from 
the fact that the ladder had maintained its firmness up to that 
time. That its motion should counteract his progress was deplor- 
able, because he was anxious to ascertain the length of the ladder, 
to behold it reaching out into the great space above, to know 
where it ended, and to catch a glimpse of the door he was to open. 
Now he could neither ascend nor descend. He ran up; the ladder 
ran down. He ran down; the ladder ran up. He crept slowly; 
so did the ladder. All at once he thought of taking his life in his 
hands and jumping; in fact leaping through the clouds into the 
vast space that now separated him from the earth, and letting his 
body strike where it would. Nothing could more certainly end 
all doubt, for death opens all doors. 

The knowledge of some men is so strong, so vivid, so 
impregnable, as this dreamer reasoned, that to delay its realization 
is the height of folly. Before us is the endless future, aglow with 
eternal happiness; no toil, no worry, no pain, no suffering; a long 
aeon of pleasure waiting for every man, woman and child; and the 
only incident that bars us from this era of joy is a straw, the mere 
death of the body to release the soul and free it for its flight. Have 
men's minds grown so numb that they cannot perceive the grievous 
mistake of living longer on earth? Not long ago a wealthy gentle- 
man, a learned and successful man, full of reason and practicabil- 
ity, became satisfied beyond all doubt that the glories of eternal 
life were on the other side of the gate of death, and he entered at 
that gate. He has not been heard from since; but he took the only 
sensible course that a sensible mind could take, struck down the 
barrier, and went his way. The thought of this convinced our 



BURNING AWAY BRIARS 



11 



dreamer; he was willing to get out of the clouds of doubt; he closed 
his eyes to the vapors; he leaped forth from the ladder; it disap- 
peared; he dropped not for a day or an hour; not for a mile or a 
furlong, but for an inch. The solid earth received him with a 
shock so light that the only inconvenience he experienced was in 
gaining an erect position. The clouds were high aloft; the breezes 
played about his fevered brow; the trees sang the joys of earth; 
field and meadow revelled in the beauty of flowers and verdure; 
brooks murmured their notes of delight; all the landscape was full 
of gladness; and the shadows above rolled away their vapors until 
the sky was one boundless expanse of blue. It was earth. 

He saw the flowers growing and wondered at their love- 
liness and beauty; he even wondered why they grew and how; who 
made them and for what purpose. He saw the petals drop and 
wither, the exquisite richness of shade and color depart, the struc- 
ture fail, and the marvelous creation pass away. The key of 
promise was still in his hand, and life was all about him. Perhaps 
on earth, and not amid the clouds, he might unlock the door. Per- 
haps fact could render him more assistance than faith; and, instead 
of climbing a ladder of his fancy, he might walk on solid ground, 
and reach the goal of his desire. It was worth trying, and he tried it. 

Fear is always evidence of weakness. Some there are 
who would shun a fact as though it were a thing of danger, conspir- 
ing with Mother Nature to do injury to their preferred religion. To 
them it is necessary to say that this volume could have been written 
seven thousand years ago as well as to-day; long before religion 
was known or dreamed of; as it takes its testimony from the solid 
germs of truth lying all about the pathway of life; something that 
faith ignores. Yet we believe in religion, we believe in faith, in 
the Bible, and in God, so thoroughly and reverently that we place 
them at once and for all time above all other considerations. If 
you have a conscience, it will tell you that no earthly duty can 
equal the higher demands of a moral life. Let your religion be 
what it may, if it teaches you to do right for the sake of right, and 
if you are sincere in your faith, there can be no question as to 
its importance; and he who Avould place some other form or creed 
above yours is childishly ignorant, though he may be too simple 
to be dishonest. But we shall neither oppose him nor prefer you; 
as these matters do not in any sense enter the province of our 
work. 



12 



IMMORTALITY 



It may be hard to understand why a treatise that deals 
with the question of immortal life should not be founded upon the 
Bible or upon some religion. The answer is that the Bible and 
religion relate only to the moral side of eternity, and that im- 
mortality was a known fact before either existed. Since the theo- 
logical schools of all denominations are teaching the ministers of 
the churches that the account of the creation stated in Genesis is 
merely a tradition, the inference is drawn that the good book 
should be consulted for its moral rather than for its geological and 
historical instruction. Yet we do not believe that any part of the 
Bible should be discredited or doubted. The millions of men and 
women who have placed faith in its teachings during all the cen- 
turies past, were not to blame for what they did not know and 
could not know; and why should the few individuals who have 
acquired so much knowledge, be priviledged to discard the sacred 
volume because the evidence of its construction is not stamped with 
red-hot irons upon the mountains of Asia? When some day a link 
in the chain of American history shall be found missing, this class 
of learned investigators will satisfy the boys and girls of a future 
epoch that George Washington was a mythical creation, and the 
war of independence an epic poem. 

The briars of knowledge are not the doubts that beset it, 
but the certainties that stiffen the mind against an appreciation of 
facts. Men and women go down into the grave, filled with con- 
victions of supposed truth stronger than Gibraltar; but they waken 
to a realization of the real purpose of existence. Standing on the 
outskirts of the Hereafter, many a soul is crying out, "What mis- 
takes you mortals are making!'" — but their voices never reach the 
realms of earth. The chasm is wide, and the beating waves dash 
heedlessly along the shores of time. 



CHAPTER II. 



THE MASTERPIECE. 



HUMAN life seems to be the climax of earthly creation. 
Nothing compares with it in value or importance. A 
mother lay upon her bed of sickness righting for her own 
life and that of her unborn child. The physician said 
that if the mother lived the child must die. It was necessary to 
cut the little one in pieces. Above the science of surgery arose 
that woman's love and gave her courage to fight awhile longer, 
an hour, two hours, for the helpless being in its physical prison. 
Love conquered science. A beautiful girl came into the world. 

The first glance told that the child was perfect. There 
were ten fingers, ten toes, two arms, two legs, two eyes, two ears, 
and a form without a flaw. How welcome is the news that all is 
well! Through the months of development and growth, a mys- 
terious power had been at work shaping the body out of mere flesh 
and blood; making the bones after a model that was followed to 
exactness, each curve and turn being true to the pattern; not a 
bone missing from the tiniest to the largest; some round, some flat, 
some thin, some thick, some long, some short, yet all as correct 
and exact as if the maker of this skeleton had kept guard over every 
particle that entered into its composition. Human invention 
could not have achieved such perfection. But this was not all. 

To the bones were tied muscles that moved in pairs, 
each having two sets, one to draw the bone forward, the other back- 
ward. The muscles were of the exact length required in each case. 
A human mechanic would have made some too long or too short, 
and thus endangered the use of parts of the body; but this mys- 
terious artisan cut them the exact length, attached them with a 
skill that defied imitation, made them as fine as silk for delicate 
uses, and as strong as cords for the greater strength required. The 
knitting of the threads that were spun into strings was more 
elaborate than the most complex machinery could accomplish; and 
yet no two sets were alike. Such variety of design and execution 
must have taxed the attention, night and day, of some tireless mind. 
Imagine how painful it would have been to the child, when ma- 

(13) 



14 



IMMORTALITY 



tured, had one muscle been a bit too long or a bit too short, or 
one carelessly attached as though a human being had done 'the 
work ! 

TVl A mTTdfariAno o^cinv. AX A x X' ^ ji 



:rnal charge - NO exit permitted 



Sloania (018) 
LC Staff-Internal 

Indefinite 11:59 PM 

Immortality. 

Shaftesbury, Edmund, 1852-1926. 
BT921 .E4 




0014652551 



3d for use inside the Library of Congress only. 



tt ° mwcsws oi construction crowd themselves upon our 
attention. The ruby current is set in motion; the teeming river 
bears its freight to more ports than all the towns and cities of the 
earth could equal; and this stream carries in its tiniest drop the 



THE MASTERPIECE 



15 



secret of universal life, known only to the artisan that made it. 
How fine and silken is the texture of the robe that encases the 
body; woven about the flesh in shape as regular as magic chisel 
can hew its masterpiece; yet living with the glow of vital warmth! 
The sum of the story is told in the fact that, in order to build so 
intricate a piece of work, and to avoid an excess of mistakes and 
accidents, it would have required the unceasing attention of ten 
thousand men ten thousand years, even though they were gifted 
with the skill to perform the task, Yet our mysterious artisan 
accomplished it all in a few months, made no mistakes, and avoided 
all accidents. 

We call it a baby, a helpless infant, and love it because it 
is ours. The home takes on a change. The hours of the day and 
week revolve about the child, as the planets make their circuits 
about the central sun. To one who for the first time watches the 
unfolding of a child's life, it is a continuous panorama of miracles. 
No existence is more helpless, none so dependent upon the loving 
care of attendants. In the first look of searching recognition it 
tells the story of its trust, and every feature pleads for all the affec- 
tion that large hearts can give. This little girl is peculiarly for- 
tunate. She is an only child, the first and last. She is beautiful 
in face and form, as though every line had been drawn from the 
pattern of flowers selected from the gardens of the sky, and blended 
into the divine image of the Creator. 

Months and years passed by, while the little being grew 
from infancy to babyhood, and from babyhood to childhood. She 
was most interesting as she learned to walk and talk; the timid 
and impulsive movements led from creeping to standing; each step 
was steadied by some hand or object until she had the courage to 
go alone; and then she tried her new-found powers until the 
muscles were over-weary. But her little mind caught sounds of 
words long before her tongue could articulate them. The first 
syllable came at last; then more; and the little chatterbox grew, in 
time, to be a very agreeable member of society. She was quite com- 
panionable. The world was new to her, but it seemed as though 
the love her parents gave her was older and more firmly rooted 
than the everlasting hills. 

Happiness reigned supreme in this little family of three. 
Material prosperity crowned their home; gardens lay before their 
doors; beyond the lawns a little lake gave to the landscape a charm 



1? 



IMMORTALITY 



that only water can impart when it bears upon its bosom the 
beauty of an inverted sky; great trees spread their welcome shade 
on hot summer afternoons against the western windows, or rustled 
listlessly in each stirring breeze that awakened to the music of 
their leaves; and peaceful joy breathed through the scene. The 
parents were devoted to each other. Love Avas not lessened because 
so large a share had been given to the daughter. 

One evening the sun went down in a flood of exquisite 
beauty. The sky had never before been painted in such glowing 
colors, nor had the clouds assumed such shapes of lace and 'figure- 
work, so thin and filmy that an accidental breeze must have over- 
whelmed them with disaster. Through the pink and purple aisles 
the minarets of some distant city half rose in the long perspective, 
with balls of gold mounted on their towers like burning globules 
from the great sun itself; yet daintily distinct in the wide stretch 
of distance. The air was clear, gentle, sweet and fragrant with sum- 
mer vines; just the kind of atmosphere that leads to reverie; for 
one may sit with open, dreaming eyes, and look beyond the farthest 
verge of earth into a realm beyond. 

This child stood watching the sky until the sunken sun 
seemed to roll in its fiery bed and send zenithward a flood of living 
flame. The parents both noted a change in the little one's face. 
It was glad, joyous, exuberant, ecstatic. — "I have seen God/' she 
cried, and hid her face. 



CHAPTER III. 



THE SPIDER AND THE ROSE. 



AMONG the supposed proofs of immortality is the argu- 
ment based upon the wonderful skill, the intricate work- 
manship, of the human body. It is claimed that such an 
exhibition of infinite wisdom proves an ultimate purpose ; 
for creation could not be lavished wantonly on this material. 
From earth to vegetation, from vegetation to animal, from animal 
to man, is a succession of steps that cannot possibly stop with mere 
man; and his lofty rank in the material world is supposed to pro- 
claim his greater rank hereafter. 

This attempt at proof is unsatisfactory. The human body 
is, indeed, a wonderful work; but that fact does not bear upon the 
question of its eternal existence. Were it a hundredfold more 
elaborate in construction, nothing would be proved. The question 
naturally arises, "Will such skill be wrought in vain?" Or, is it 
probable that the consummate triumph of constructive invention 
is to be lost in mere nothingness? Look into the face of the 
beautiful child, study the love that winds its golden cords about the 
hearts of parents, and ask if this angelic visitor comes from naught 
and goes to oblivion. Think of the daily miracles of nature,, 
whereby the little life is sustained and protected, the mind and 
heart fed, and the ties that bind it to others made stronger hour 
by hour; and answer, Is it all in vain? This is not argument, and 
not proof. It is sentiment, healthful, noble, worthy sentiment. 
In order to turn it into the form of demonstration, it is first neces- 
sary to inquire if this marvel of creation might not be made in 
vain. Proof must have a starting point, a beginning on which to 
rest. Can we declare that man is immortal because he is so won- 
derfully made that he could not possibly be created in vain? 

We are seeking facts, not sentiment. Here are three 
assertions: first, man is wonderfully made; second, nothing is made 
in vain; third, man is immortal. The second assertion might have 
been stated more fully; that so great a piece of work as man could 
not be made in vain, and therefore is not. But these are dis- 
jointed assertions. They bear no relation to each other. One of 

(17) 



la 



IMMORTALITY 



them is a fact, the others are unproved as far as we have gone. It 
is true that man is most marvelously made; but why should that 
prove his immortality, and why should he not perish? 

We are all of us plunged into the midst of a seething mass 
of humanity, encompassed by every kind of surroundings imagin- 
able. It is impossible to conceive of anything that is material that 
earth does not carry on its surface, dead, alive, growing, dying, or 
stagnating. All is animate, in one sense or another. The solid 
rock is crumbling, the clod is petrifying, the sand is making strata, 
the strata are mellowing into soil. Xothing is without animation, 
chemical or protoplasmic. This planet is busy. To what end? 
Must it be true that, because it is teeming with myriad evidences 
of skill far beyond the comprehension of man, it is therefore im- 
mortal? We all hope that it is mortal, and that, some day, its 
mission will have been fulfilled, and itself left floating an aimless 
wanderer in the sea of space. Why? Because our minds and 
yearnings are fixed upon the assumption that the present vital era 
of the earth is transitory and designed for man's uses; which being 
accomplished, it may be struck out from beneath our feet, and we 
may wing our flight to a more alluring realm. All this is idle 
sentiment. 

In nervous unrest we walk forth into the gardens, to inhale 
the morning air and admire the wealth of blossoms that welcome 
our visit. There are flowers of every variety; but queen among 
the multitude is the rose. It is beautiful, but that is not all. It 
is fragrant; and what is fragrance ? An aesthetic philosopher 
argues that the odor of delicious perfume so stirs the soul that it 
proves immortality; but how? We have seen a strong man weep 
when a tiny flower was pressed to his lips. Its odor brought back 
the memory of his dead mother, upon whose breast just such a 
flower was resting as he kissed her cold face for the last time. Was 
the soul touched? Music has sent its spell over many a life; for 
old familiar airs come back to us laden with the happiness of their 
earlier associations. 

It is true that animals and a low order of human beings 
do not appreciate the fragrance of flowers. Experiments with the 
horse, dog, and cat, as well as with birds, show that delightful 
perfume is lost on them. Perhaps the nerves of smell are not 
affected in this way, although more delicate than those of man. 
The dog is noted for his keenness of scent, yet he has no way of 



THE SPIDER AND THE ROSE 



19 



knowing that the rose is fragrant. The cultured man or woman 
believes it feeds the soul. Is it material? If so, why does not the 
chemist analyze it? He cannot even secure it. The volatile oil 
of the flower becomes his prisoner; but let its fragrance float out 
upon the air, and cubic miles of atmosphere could not contain 
enough to give him the slightest trace, although an inch would 
bring exquisite delight to his nostrils. 

The rose is wonderfully made. Its form and parts are 
simpler than the perfect body of the child; yet, as far as they go, 
they are equally marvelous. Leaves, stem and bud; petals, shape and 
hue, are too elaborate for man's ripest skill. He can construct the 
proud steamboat that rides the great ocean; and herein he makes 
the green philosophers gape; but between the thousand intricacies 
of the mighty palace of the waters and the workmanship of the 
rose, there is a gulf as wide as the chasm between earth and 
Heaven. No skill or artifice of the human brain can make a single 
cell in the roseleaf. Must this flower perish? Is it worthy of 
immortality ? 

If splendid construction were to be proof of eternal life, 
the spider would be guaranteed that boon. He is smaller than man, 
but size does not count in a matter of this character. Get your 
microscope, and let us examine the spider. Now he is a giant 
among insects, and as large as a human being. Look at the fine 
array of the body, the legs and arms we will say, the head and eyes, 
the garniture and equipment, and all that a Creator, wise as 
the Maker of man, can produce. As between the two, the perfect 
specimens of humanity and the spider, the latter gives evidence of 
greater skill in construction. Therefore, why should not the spider 
be accorded immortality? Can such a production be made in vain? 
If so, why made at all ? 

This splendid fellow, the beautiful spider, has the eye of 
the devil. You can see that by closely studying its nature. It 
is not an honest eye; but a black, malignant, vicious, cunning, 
hideous, treacherous, devilish eye. The internal structure is just 
as marvelous as the finest parts in the anatomy of the eye of man, 
and is apparently more difficult of arrangement. How came all 
this about? What is its meaning, and what its purpose? Do you 
not see how unreliable must be the argument that would prove 
immortality by the aid of such evidence? 

If eternal existence is founded upon claims of this kind, 



20 



IMMORTALITY 



then it must be true that morality is a very unimportant incident 
of immortality. The rose is a highly ethical flower; but its enemies 
are flowers also, some of them beautiful, although rank and ob- 
noxious weeds. It is not a struggle for supremacy; it is death to 
the rose, and victory for the poison-weed, when they are left to 
themselves. This queen of flowers is extolled to the skies by some 
enthusiasts, as an emblem of Heaven. It is said that ill cannot 
lurk in its leaves. Only the pure and holy are associated with it 
in its brief life; then it dies, and dissolves. Whence came it ? 
Whither has it gone ? 

The beautiful girl, described in our second chapter, loved 
the rose. Together they seemed to be in perfect harmony in love- 
liness, charming sweetness and radiant glory. Innocent of all laws 
of nature, yet knowing full as much as nature ever intended she 
should know, this happy child reached forth her hand to pluck her 
favorite flower. Instantly she withdrew it, stung with thorns: 
torn, bleeding, and hurt with pain. They stripped it of its sharp 
protectors, but she threw it to the ground in doubt. It lay there 
for awhile, till her mother said that it would do her no harm. 
God made the flowers to please His children, and nothing could be 
more beautiful than this injured rose, now slightingly discarded, 
and lying pleading in her path. Confiding in her mother, trust- 
ing the word that had never spoken untruthfully in all her mem- 
ory, the child obeyed the alluring invitation and lifted the flower 
to her lips. An instant more and a magnificent specimen of insect 
creation fell from its folds, and crawled along the ground. The 
girl had been bitten by the spider. 

To the insect mind the most valuable life is its own. To 
the human mind all material creation holds nothing to compare 
with human life. Judged by the skill manifested in its construc- 
tion, the spider has as great a right to live as the child. Both are 
marvels and masterpieces of invention. The bite of the spider 
was unnecessary; its own life is not spared because of its venom; 
but rather is it hunted and destroyed. Were it as harmless as the 
cricket it might thrive as well. To lurk in the .petals of the fallen 
rose was instinct; to sting the lip that caressed it, was wanton and 
malignant cruelty. It served no purpose either in its own life, or 
in the plan of universal creation. It offered the aggression, made 
the attack, and dealt the only blow that fell. Its escape was as 
easy and more probable, had it fallen without assault. 



THE SPIDER AND THE ROSE 



21 



The mother realized what had happened, and took precious 
care of the little one whose life was a thousand times more valuable 
to her than her own. The wound was treated by the best medical 
skill of the age. All assured the child that it was a mere scratch 
and would soon heal. But the creator of that venom which was 
given to the spider, had made it deadly and violent. It loved the 
child's blood, and quickly its million germs made millions each, 
and spread to all the body beyond the reach of help. The mother 
saw the danger. In her arms lay the now suffering girl, and be- 
neath the mothers face were two eyes, uplifted in their gaze to 
hers, full of confidence in the soul that had never spoken an un- 
truth to her. This was the hardest part of her grief. She saw 
the swollen lip grow black and hideous, the face change, and the 
eyes close; but she never forgot that appealing, searching, lingering 
look of love that went out as the sun fades in a storm. ~No tortures 
of the damned could exceed the writhing and excruciating agony 
of the dying child, and none could equal the fearful rack that tore 
the mother's heart. Death was a release; but what a death! 

A happy home was destroyed in a week. The only 
child of earth's richest love was bloated, disfigured and blackened; 
and no one dared to look upon the bursted flesh as it lay in the 
casket, to be buried out of sight. The mother's heart had broken. 
The father could not endure it all, and his reason fled. They had 
loved each other, had been true to their duties in life, had obeyed 
all laws and respected all conditions as they deserved. Their home 
was beautiful, their gardens were ideal spots where all the loveli- 
ness of nature was courted; and all that they could do had been 
done to secure the highest measure of earthly enjoyment while 
serving their God. 

When man declares that the human species is the ultimate 
purpose of life on earth, is he justified in the statement? Was the 
world created for man? If so, why will one million die in infancy 
for every million that will survive? And if their death is due to 
ignorance, why is parental love so feebly endowed that it is help- 
less in the lap of nature? No tree was ever so loaded with beauti- 
ful blossoms charged with the burden of bearing noble fruit, but 
that thousands must perish to make way for the hundreds that 
remain. The same plan controls all reproduction, and indicates 
that the preservation of the species is paramount to all other con- 
siderations. To maintain this law, millions of children are sacri- 



22 



IMMORTALITY 



need each year; but have they no rights, no place in the universe, 
or must they blight and fade away like leaves upon the barren 
field? The blossom is lovely to the eye, and has as much of 
creative mystery and purpose as the child; if neither is permitted 
to participate in the privileges of maturing fruit and offspring, 
are all rights to be denied them; especially for faults that are not 
their own? Perhaps it may be true that life is misunderstood, 
and death misjudged. 




CHAPTEK IV. 



BEGINNING OF THE ARGUMENT. 



OUR purpose is to prove that a human being is immortal : 
if, indeed, this can be proved. If it cannot, then the at- 
tempt should be made to prove that a human being is not 
immortal. In case of failure in this direction, the conclu- 
sion must be that neither proposition is provable, and this would 
lead to the same old speculation that prevailed in the times of 
Plato and Socrates. 

Argument should be both interesting and profitable; 
but it should also avoid speculation, for nothing is so unsatisfac- 
tory as to wade through a deluge of explanation and find that the 
matter explained amounts to nothing, or that the process is devoid 
of results. The long drawn out ideas of theorists, especially when 
set forth with an offensive positiveness, are the least valuable of 
all reading. The philosophy of the old schools still lives and 
wearies the mind with its emptiness. It does not deal with facts. 
Its beginnings are wrong, and it leads to vagueness. 
Facts are of three kinds : 
Those that we know. 
Those that we believe. 

Those that exist in spite of our knowledge or belief. 

We believe many things to be true that are true; but, at the 
same time, we believe many things to be true that are false. Time 
may confirm the one and expose the other. AYe often meet the 
expression, "It is probably true," and good judgment compels us 
to accept a supposed fact on its probabilities. Thus, the books of 
Darwin, Huxley, and others who have impressed the world with 
their wisdom, abound with reasonable probabilities, so fairly stated 
that they carry greater weight on account of the absence of posi- 
tiveness. Yet, in a work like the present, it will not do to use 
this class of probable facts; for, if we cannot proceed without them, 
this volume may take its place among the myriad works of its 
kind, with nothing accomplished. 

A fact and a principle are identical ; one is a substance, 
the other a law. "The earth is round" 7 is a fact. "Nothing 



24 



IMMORTALITY 



perishes" is a law. Both are realities, and both are certainties. 
They serve as a substantial foundation for demonstration; for there 
can be no canse for donbt in whatever direction they may direct 
our steps. Let us start right, and proceed safely. A chain of 
great facts will be forged in the chapters to follow, and each link 
will be perfect in strength and durability. As we proceed, step 
by step, a fact will be obtained and a new link added, until the end 
is reached and the pages of this book are brought to a close. 

If you will act as the jury we will submit our case to you 
in this manner, and allow you to pronounce the verdict; at the 
same time assuring you that there can be but one result, to which 
you will also agree. That the trial may be fair in all particulars, 
we shall produce no evidence that is in dispute. There will be 
no questioning of witnesses, because there will be no questioning 
of facts. There will be no plaintiff, because there is no defendant; 
nor could there be parties to a law or fact. The links in the chain 
of evidence will serve to produce such a verdict as would be forth- 
coming in a case where all persons were agreed as to the facts 
produced. 

That the argument may not be dull we propose to speak 
in the language of every-day life, and omit the terms and phrases 
of the scientists. If things are simply stated, please remember that 
they are more easily understood. The technical scientist may wish 
to see the larger words and more obstruse terminology of his ex- 
clusive books applied to the study of this problem; yet, on the other 
hand, the man or woman of general education may be unable to 
grasp ideas that are so handicapped. There is no need of a living 
burial of the sublime facts of the universe. Therefore we shall 
be simple, plain, and direct in all our statements, and in every 
step of the process. 

The several steps of this journey may lead you with us 
into many pleasant by-paths of life, into many studies, sciences, 
annals of earth and men, and fields of investigation requiring de- 
partures from the line of advance; but each step so taken will be 
profitable, and we hope interesting. So large a theme cannot be 
compassed by brief labors. Time and travel in mind and body are 
necessary. The thought you give to our statements, the mental 
drudgery you undergo with us in mining out the nuggets, will do 
you good; for such stimulation of the brain is wholesome to its 
physical condition, as well as fruitful in results. Study is always 



BEGINNING OF THE ARGUMENT 



25 



beneficial. Faculties wear out by lack of use that grow stronger 
when rightfully employed. 

This is not a book of pleasure, but one of serious thought. 
Its every page should be read and re-read until understood. Avoid 
rushing ahead, or passing lightly by its portions in the endeavor to 
skim the surface and omit the toil of its deeper study. Consecutive 
reading alone is satisfactory in the prosecution of this investigation. 
Some readers are content to rush onward until the brain is tired, 
then pass from place to place in the book merely to hold the interest. 
Such methods are chargeable to a mind weakened by too much 
fictional reading as of novels or newspapers; and if you are given 
to either vicious habit, it will be difficult to carry on any serious 
study at any time. 

If, when all the facts are presented and the last link in the 
chain is forged, it shall appear that proof conclusive is attained, the 
importance of that result cannot be estimated. It is, therefore, 
w T orth the effort to labor on with us in drudgery if need be, and 
share in the satisfaction that so profound a task, well ended, must 
impart. If you are resting on faith, it is well; but the noblest 
disciples of faith are ever searching for facts besides; and the 
smallest straw provides volumes of comfort when the dark world 
of doubt lowers over the soul. It is not wrong to add facts to 
faith. It is wrong to neglect to do so. Thus on every side our 
labors are helpful. 



CHAPTEE V. 



THE FIEST FACT. 



[ «™ ] 




'HE earth is cumulative. 

This is the 601st Ralston Principle. It represents a law, 
and is also a fact. The word cumulative means c ' gaining by 



successive additions." The proposition is one of great im- 
portance, though its relation to our subject may not at first be 
apparent, We shall commence at the beginning, for there our first 
step in the order of proof is to be found. 

A thoughtful person naturally asks two questions when 
pondering over the presence of this great planet; one, Whence 
came it? — the other, How old is it? As man is the direct product 
of the soil, he is intimately associated with the earth, both in 
origin and destiny. It is commonly believed that the earth was 
created for man, in the sense that it was created in order that man 
might come into being, feed upon its material, and use its wealth 
for his own advancement. As a separate existence, it is impossible 
to conceive of humanity having no planet to dwell upon. Such 
independence may be permissible in some parts of the universe, 
but how it can be maintained is too deep a problem for discussion. 
As far as this life is concerned, we know that man has the earth, 
and the earth has man. The two are flesh and blood together. 

The origin of the earth is related to the origin of man, and 
its destiny is to be associated with his destiny. Science is con- 
tinually asking how this planet came into existence. Attempts 
have been made to ascertain why it was made, but the first act in 
its early history is not revealed either by geology or other science. 
There are undoubted evidences that, as a mass, it is cumulative; 
but these evidences relate to its crust; still they are sufficient for 
our purpose. The laws under which they operate are fixed, and 
through their aid we propose to take a peep into that long past to 
which they invite us. We are not trespassing on the realm of 
the higher volume, All Existence, in the account about to be pre- 
sented; for that work contains the whole story, while this narrative 



THE FIRST FACT 



27 



repeats merely a synopsis, and that of but a brief portion. The 
proof of this theory is produced at the end instead of the beginning, 
for it gives a more logical strength to the account to retain its true 
historical position. 

The earth had a beginning ; but it does not therefore fol- 
low that its material was created out of nothing. The system to 
which it belongs is one and the same product of the same act of 
creation; even though it may not be related to other parts of the 
universe. To understand this better, imagine a great section of 
space in the sky having height, breadth, and depth sufficient to 
hold the sun and all the mighty planets that make their circuits 
around him; the most distant confines of which are separated from 
the nearest stars by distance incalculable. This part of the sky 
is a corner by itself. We believe our sun to be of mighty magni- 
tude; but it may be true that it and its brood are so insignificant 
that they are invisible to eyes in other worlds. At all events, the 
solar system has all the space it requires, and an immense surplus. 
It occupies this section of the sky in its own exclusiveness. 

There was once a time when this space was empty, when 
no planets, no nebula?, no gaseous vapor even, occupied this 
domain. The sun was not yet come. All was void, empty noth- 
ingness. Behind was no record of creation relating to this section 
of the sky; ahead was that long train of events that must culminate 
in man. How this space was first occupied is a much mooted ques- 
tion; but all agree that man has come into being out of fire. It 
is evident that the earth was once in a molten state, and that the 
sun is now a mass of flames. That the earth has cooled is true; 
and from its loss of superficial heat comes the theory that if it 
cooled from a molten state, that condition must have been pre- 
ceded by a gaseous state. This is inference. Whether it is just- 
ified or not we shall see. 

Among the accounts of the origin of the earth is that ad- 
vanced by Swedenborg in 1734, that the space in question was once 
filled with gas, highly expanded from intense heat; and, as some 
of the heat left it, a condensed molten condition followed, causing 
the matter to appear in globules, of which the sun was the center, 
and the spatterings became planets, each revolving on an axis, and 
each chasing itself around the sun under laws fixed and eternal. 
In 1749, Buffon caught up this theory, and was followed by Kant 
and Wright; but it was left to the greatest of all astronomers, 



28 



IMMORTALITY 



William Herschel, to elaborate the hypothesis into a supposed per- 
fect system. In nearly all his investigations, Herschel arrived at 
correct and valuable results; but in this nebular hypothesis he fell 
into numerous errors that were modified by his successors. He 
did not account for the presence of this highly inflamed gas, where 
it came from, nor how it got here. He conceived the sun to 
be part of the results of the cooling process, but did not satisfac- 
torily explain how it got to the center and compelled all other parts 
to do it homage. Xor could he account for the revolutions of the 
planets and the establishing of their orbits. 

A modification of this theory was offered by Laplace, 
another of the world's greatest scientists. This able man stated 
that the sun might have been surrounded by an atmosphere ex- 
tending beyond the limits of the solar system, which contracted 
with the loss of heat by radiation, and threw off certain rings of 
matter which broke up into the planets and their satellites. Her- 
schel later on changed his views. In IT 94 he supposed the nebulae 
to be composed entirely of distant stars: but in 1811 and 1814 he 
issued two memoirs in which he stated that the nebulae, and 
especially the irregular nebulae, must be remnants of an original 
vapor or gas; and from this primordial matter there were still 
being f mined irregular nebula, nebulous stars, and stars, in the 
order here given. Laplace agreed with him in this conclusion, and, 
although many aspects of the hypothesis have changed since then, 
the theory that the formation of orbs is constantly going on in 
the sky, is maintained by the most learned men of to-day. 

As far as the present argument is concerned, the point 
thus ascertained is the only material one in the whole hypothesis. 
The process of orb-growth is still going on. This is what we wish 
to maintain. It may be well to state that Humboldt, Arago, and 
many others advocated the same theory. Plateau devised some 
beautiful experiments that tended to confirm the belief that stars, 
or at least bodies of matter, are being formed in the sky. The 
observation of the zodiacal light, the discovery of the ring of 
asteroids, the demonstration by means of the spectroscope that 
certain nebulae are gaseous, and other experiments have given 
additional support to this theory. It must be admitted, however, 
that no other part of the nebular hypothesis is sustained except the 
claim that orbs are now being formed in space within the limits 
of the solar system. From this it is inferred that all the planets 



THE FIRST FACT 



29 



were so formed, and even that the sun came into being in the same 
manner. There is no warrant for this latter conclusion. 

Assuming that asteroids are still being formed, either by 
the condensation or collision and union of matter in space, it ought 
to follow that every orb already created is receiving additions from 
the same source and upon the same principle as separate smaller 
bodies are being formed. If this rule holds true in one case, it 
necessarily holds true in another. The fault with the theory of 
Herschel lies in the assumption that because the process is now 
going on in space, it has ceased with relation to the earth. This 
cannot hold true in one case and not in another. This planet is 
traveling through the sky, and comes in contact with the gases 
and their floating bodies. The fact of the cumulative habit of 
the earth might be considered established by this evidence alone; 
but there are other convincing circumstances that leave no doubt 
of it, and these will be considered in the next chapter. 

At that time when the space now occupied by the solar 
system was empty, man was conceived in the mind of some power, 
God, Creator, or Master-spirit. Let the person and character of 
that divinity be what they may, the facts remain that man is here, 
that he came out of fire, that the fire came into this section of the 
universe from some other realm, and that it must have been sent 
by the being that created and controlled it. There is too much 
evidence of deliberate design in every process of life and matter to 
allow one to believe that laws alone could have made matter in- 
telligent. The power that shines in it all, directed every step in its 
creation and development. The God of this vast universe, in the 
springtime of its life, stood forth amid the giant proportions of 
His realm where the buttresses of Heaven confront the cold ampli- 
tudes of space, and, gathering together a mass of glittering, burn- 
ing, fiery matter, rolled it into a blazing ball, lifted the sphere aloft, 
and hurled it out into the empty sky. So the sun was created. 
So every sun was created. It is our life, our light, our only source 
of material and vital existence. To it we owe everything; what 
we are and what we acquire. Our central sun is the direct agent 
of God. 



CHAPTER VI. 



MAN'S MATERIAL ORIGIN. 



f 602 ] 




HE sun is the source of the earth. 

This is the 602cl Ralston Principle, and represents a fact 
rather than a law. On close examination it will be seen 



that it does not necessarily conflict with the process of 
world-formation stated in the nebular hypothesis; though it varies 
with the first step in the life of the solar system. According to 
that hypothesis, space was occupied by a gas which condensed; but 
our claim is that the sun was sent out into space and threw off the 
gas. It created the vapors, instead of resulting from them. That 
this is the case may be seen from a series of important facts. 

That the earth is cumulative was but partly established 
in the preceding chapter. ~\Ye now assert that the source of its 
accumulation, or the material that is being continually added to 
its bulk, is the sun, the original maker of the planets in the solar 
system. Our proof is found in two ways; in the present condition 
of this part of the universe, and in the process that has been going 
on for millions of years, as indicated by the earth itself. We know 
the present condition of this part of the universe to be a mixture 
of vapors, gases, meteors, asteroids, comets, and planetary tend- 
encies; or, in other words, it is as well established as that the earth 
is round, that the solar system is full of everything from a streak 
of vapor to a massive globe. No mixture could be more complete 
and varied; yet nine great bodies comprise the results, and one of 
these is the sun itself. There are eight planets revolving about their 
central globe; Mercury, Venus, the Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, 
Uranus, and Neptune. Of these the smallest is Mercury; its 
diameter is 2,958 miles, and it is nearest to the sun, being distant 
about 35,000,000 miles. Next comes Venus, which revolves in 
an orbit between Mercury and the earth; it is 66,000,000 miles 
from the sun and only 26,000,000 miles from the earth. The latter 
is about 92,000,000 miles from the sun. Venus and the earth are 
twin globes of about the same size; Venus having a diameter of 

(30) 



MAN'S MATERIAL ORIGIN 



31 



7,549 miles, and the earth 7,926 miles. Mars is next beyond the 
earth, is 4,915 miles in diameter and almost 150,000,000 miles from 
the sun. Then comes the greatest of all planets, Jupiter; its 
diameter is 88,294 miles, and its distance from the sun is nearly 
500,000,000 miles. Saturn is also an enormous mass, having a 
diameter of 71,823 miles, and a distance of nearly 900,000,000 miles 
from the sun. Beyond is Uranus; diameter, 33,124, and distance, 
1,700,000,000 miles; and farthest of all, on the outermost circuit 
of the system, is Neptune; diameter, 35,910 miles, and distant from 
the sun nearly 2,800,000,000 miles. 

Here we have the family of worlds of which the earth 
is a member. All combined, the eight great planets, if rolled to- 
gether in one mass, would be very small compared with the sun, 
whose diameter is 853,000 miles. Next in size to the planets are the 
asteroids, which resemble stars, and were mistaken for them until 
the present century. These revolve in the great belt of space 
between Mars and Jupiter, where a planet is undoubtedly missing. 
About three hundred have been discovered; yet all of them com- 
bined would not equal one-fourth of the earth; and the largest 
asteroid is so small that Mercury, the least of the eight planets, 
is one thousand times larger. It will be noticed that Mercury is 
35,000,000 miles from the sun; that Venus is 31,000,000 miles from 
Mercury; that the space between Venus and the earth is 26,000,000 
miles; that Mars is 48,000,000 miles from the earth, and that the 
distance between Mars and Jupiter is 360,000,000 miles. This 
sudden increase of space attracted considerable attention among 
the ablest astronomers. Some claimed that a planet was missing, 
others that a planet would yet be developed there. In either case 
it was asserted that there should be fragmentary evidence obtain- 
able by observation; fragments of an exploded globe, or of a world 
in progress of formation, must be floating in that vast space. As 
a result we have the asteroid Ceres, discovered in 1801, Pallas in 
1802, Juno in 1804, Vesta in 1807; then a long lapse of time spent 
in searching the heavens, after which came Astrasa in 1845, and 
three more in 1847; then one or more in nearly every year since, 
as many as eight being discovered in 1852. 

The most remarkable fact in astronomy is that all the 
planets and all the asteroids revolve about the sun in one and the 
same direction. This conclusively proves that the whole solar 
system is closely related in origin, and that an independent creation 



32 



IMMORTALITY 



was not the lot of each several orb. If the first state was gaseous, 
and. the vapors revolved in space, they would, as the}* condensed, 
continue the same revolution in separate globes; but this motion 
would relate only to a circuitous journey around the sun. It is 
not conceivable that so large a mass could turn on an axis in the 
sky: and, if it were possible, the result would be quite different 
from the real facts. For instance, if a vapor of fiery gas having a 
diameter of more than 10,000,000,000 miles were to revolve as an 
entirety, each part would traverse the circuit in company with each 
other part, the outer portion making the journey in exactly the 
same time as any portion near the center. This would mean ex- 
cessive relative speed for the circumference, and very slow motion 
for such a planet as the earth. The facts contradict this theory; 
and there are many other reasons why it cannot be correct. If the 
solar system is not a condensation of expanded vapor, it must then 
be the expansion of the central power, the great sun itself. There 
is no other conclusion possible. 

There are other classes of material within the precincts 
of this system, that are destined to afford us some help. We refer 
to the meteors and comets. On any clear night in the year you 
will, if you count them, observe not less than eight shooting stars 
in each hour of the first half of the night, and fully double that 
number in the last half. They seem to be most numerous toward 
morning. Two persons will observe more than one, for many 
escape the eye, as their flash occupies but a fractional part of a 
second. Five persons will observe more than two; ten more than 
five, and so on. As they keep up their bombardment night and 
day, and in every part of the globe, a conservative calculation 
estimates that fully ten millions of these meteors are added to the 
surface of the earth in every twenty-four hours, or 3,650,000,000 
in the course of a year. In size they vary from small stones to large 
masses. There are special periods when they come in showers. 
On February 1.2, 1875, there fell in Iowa many thousands, and a 
collection of a portion of the fragments weighed over 500 pounds. 
On the morning of November 13, 1833, they came so thickly as 
to be described as a fiery snow storm. They are recorded by 
reliable observers as coming in thousands on November 12, 1799; 
November 14, 183.2; November 14, 1866; Xovember 14, 1867; 
November 14, 1868, and on many other occasions. 

While they do in fact fall to the ground in some instances. 



MAN S MATERIAL ORIGIN 



33 



they always come scorched or partly burned, if they reach the 
surface of the earth at all. Nearly all are destroyed by our atmos- 
phere; for it is well known that the excessive speed, averaging 
thirty miles a second, produces such friction as to cause instant 
fire. For this reason the distance of shooting stars, when first 
seen, is about one hundred miles from the earth, at which place the 
dense atmosphere begins. Were it not for this kind protection, 
many people would be killed by the pelting of these wanderers. 
They are generally either stone or iron, when found; and no 
meteor has ever yet come to the earth that contained elements not 
found in the structure of this planet. That they came from a 
wide range of space we shall see. It is certain that the entire solar 
system, is closely associated in character, and came from the same 
general source. The meteors that are burned by our atmosphere 
are reduced to gases, and these reach the earth in time through 
chemical processes and become solids; just as the burning forest is 
sent upward to the clouds in the form of smoke, enters into a 
gaseous existence, and is associated in the subsequent growth of 
vegetation, reappearing sooner or later in solids. 

The meteors, whether in the form of stones or fragments of 
iron, bring with them carbonic acid, which is known to form so 
prominent a part of the comet's tail. It is also a fact that comets, 
furnish material for meteoric showers; for the shooting stars in- 
crease when a comet comes near the earth, or we pass through the 
tail of a comet, as is frequently the case. It is also true that comets 
decrease materially in size after such meteoric showers. We are 
brought face to face with the following propositions: either the 
comets are of recent origin, or else new ones are continually form- 
ing. It would be absurd to assume that, in all the millions of 
years that have elapsed since the earth was created, there have been 
no comets until recently. We know that those with which we are 
familiar are steadily growing less with each meteoric shower they 
precipitate; and we know that others have been wasted away and 
have disappeared, probably from this cause. Yet there were 
comets centuries ago. The ancient Hebrews saw them. A marvel- 
ous comet appeared at about the time of Caesar's death, 44 B. C, 
presaging calamity. The same messenger of dread is supposed to 
be the one that was observed centuries later, when the Turks 
captured Constantinople; and an addition was made to the prayer 
Ave Maria, "Lord, save us from the devil, the Turk and the 



34 



IMMORTALITY 



comet." All three were supposed to be enemies to mankind; but it 
is now known that the heavenly train of light is merely working 
out one of the processes of creation. 

Having dealt with astronomy thus far, we now turn to 
an examination of the sun's rays and seek an explanation of comets, 
meteors and asteroids. As we have seen, the sun is not far from 
a million miles in diameter. It is almost exactly one per cent, as 
thick through its center as the distance from the earth to the sun. 
When we consider the vast space that separates us from its presence, 
this proportion is. large. The eight planets, the few hundred 
asteroids, the floating fragments called meteors, and the comets, 
all combined — planets, asteroids, meteors and comets — do not in- 
dicate a serious or appreciable loss of substance from the great sun 
itself. Were they to be re-attached to it, and as much lost in a 
day, coming from the surface of the sun, an astronomer could 
hardly detect the difference even by the aid of the most accurate 
instruments. By this we see that the sun is capable of parting 
with much of its material without reducing its bulk by the trans- 
action. 

The supposition that the planets and other material 
were thrown from the sun by a general condensation and spattering 
of big drops off into space cannot be maintained, and is decidedly 
unscientific. Under such an operation hundreds and thousands of 
orbs of greater or less size must have been sent forth into space; 
yet we find but eight. The claim that they may have returned 
to the sun cannot be sustained, for planets, once in their places, do 
not go back to the parent globe, although it is quite true that 
comets, meteors and fragments by millions are returning to the 
sun. It is supposed by scientists that the intense heat is main- 
tained by the friction of these objects. If so, the sun is an example 
of perpetual supply, of self-supporting power, of eternal activity; 
which, being true, would indicate an unending career, and, being 
untrue, would point to its end some day, some coming day in the 
universal calendar. That all material does not return is easily 
proved. The planets, asteroids and meteors that are now beyond 
the capturing influence of the sun's attraction, have not gone back, 
and never will. That the asteroids have, in many instances, been 
attracted to Jupiter is quite certain: and that this king of planets 
may have stolen the material or substance of some other world or 
worlds on the inner and outer range of his orbit, is more than 



MAN'S MATERIAL ORIGIN 



35 



probable. That it, and all planets, as well as the earth, are being 
added to by shooting stars or flying meteors, is certain; and this 
alone would prove that the substance of the solar system, which 
must have come from the sun, and is daily coming from the sun, 
is being deprived of an opportunity to return. Hence it is very 
clear that the sun is losing its bulk and is growing smaller, but not 
perceptibly. Whether it is losing its heat or not depends entirely 
on the other question, whether its heat is due to the return of 
material, or to its own inherent vitality. That it was originally 
endowed with inherent vitality is true; and it is true to-day, as is 
seen in a thousand bits of evidence; therefore we cannot descend to 
the cold fact that its heat is kept up by nothing more than tramp 
matter in the sky. 

Man is not only associated with the sun and every part 
of the solar system, but he is the offspring of the very material that 
thus floats through space. His origin, history and destiny cannot 
be estranged, from a single particle of this great system. To this 
conclusion we are to come by successive steps of proof. He sprang 
from seed; the seed came out of the soil; the soil came from the 
earth; the earth came from the solar system, and the solar system 
came from the sun, by our hypothesis; but with the sun from a 
common origin, by the partly accepted nebular hypothesis; thus 
showing that man is made of sun material. Of this there is not the 
slightest doubt, and not the slightest room for doubt. 

We are now brought face to face with the present action 
of the sun's rays and their effect in producing the material that is 
ever being added to the earth. Before taking up that question, 
we must dispose of the negative side of it. The fragments that 
come to our earth by millions daily, and to other planets in greater 
quantities, cannot be remnants of a long past. It is well established 
that this earth itself has already been many millions of years in 
process of completion, and is still in process. Before its era there 
were aeons of time when the solar system was struggling to its 
equilibrium. If these fragments are now remnants of that early 
dawn, then space must have once been solid with them; an im- 
possibility. 

The rays of the sun are not only excessively and intensely 
active, but they are the cause and source of all activity, whether in 
chemistry, in heat, in electricity, in plant growth, or in the animal 
functions. To withdraw them would mean death in a few days; 



36 



IMMORTALITY 



that is, if the sun should go out and its action should cease from 
reaching our atmosphere. 

All activity affects matter. 

This is the 603d Ealston Principle, and represents both a law 
and a fact. By it is meant that there is no action in the universe 
that is not directed to some material in the universe. While the 
statement is broad, it is not in dispute. A small part of its opera- 
tion is seen in the vital function of sunlight. What is known as 
heat is supposed to be an activity of molecules, particles or sub- 
stance, all which enter into the composition of matter. In other 
words, heat could not exist if it had not matter to operate on. 
Electricity, with all its mystery, dwells in and plays through matter. 
It was formerly supposed that light was material, or molecular, or 
atomic; in which case it must have had matter to deal with. After- 
ward it was assumed that it was undulatory ether; that is, an atmos- 
phere lighter than air, that permeates all solids and liquids and 
occupies space; and that this ether transmitted waves of force that 
became known as light, just as waves of molecules are known 
as heat. 

That this ether is matter may be seen from the following 

facts. When light, which according to the latest and most accepted 
theory undulates in waves of ether, strikes air, or liquids, or solids, 
a molecular action is set up called heat. When this heat is intense 
the molecules fly apart, the particles dance ferociously about each 
other and separate into gases, called flame. Thus light can and 
does set fire to matter. Whatever its nature, it is material enough 
to burn substance. Another fact is important. The rays of light 
may be converged by lenses or mirrors, and brought to bear upon 
a certain point, producing intense heat. Any boy can prove this 
by the simplest experiments. In the old Eoman days ships at 
sea were set on fire by converging the rays of the sun upon them. 
This shows that ether is not a solid gas, but a series of lines, rays 
or atomic processions widely apart in proportion to their size. Still 
another fact, incidentally referred to, is the reflection of rays when 
directed against a bright object. They are turned aside by an 
angle, acute or obtuse as the angle of incident may be. Here we 
find evidence that light is material, and that its substance is not 
like air, but is in the form of straight lines. These we shall call 



MANS MATERIAL ORIGIN 



37 



atomic processions or movements of atoms, always straight ahead, 
forward or backward. They never bend and are never in curves. 

To illustrate light let us imagine a Gatling gun discharging 
cartridges from myriads of holes, each hole sending forth a con- 
tinual succession of active balls. Further imagine these cartridges 
to be so small that a hundred thousand million times a hundred 
thousand million of them would not, when combined, equal in 
size the finest point of a cambric needle. Human conception is 
powerless to contemplate anything so infinitesimally small, as it is 
powerless to understand the vastness of space. Man is poised 
between two extremes, and such seems to be his place in the uni- 
verse. That the rays of light are material is as certain as any- 
thing can be. Every principle and law of light confirms it. It 
has force, energy, power, activity, intensity and an adaptability to 
other forms of matter just as streams of water or lines of shot have 
under parallel conditions. On this theory alone can color be 
accounted for, and all the so-called phenomena of light. 

The atom is the smallest division of matter. It is ex- 
plained in the higher degree book, All Existence. The sun is 
composed of atoms, either separated or massed. All the planets, 
asteroids, meteors and comets are collections of atoms and nothing 
else. When the blazing sun sends forth its energy into space, the 
agency of that force must be atomic. The sun cannot hurl a frag- 
ment of solid matter at the earth, nor a globule of molten rock or 
iron. It selects the only material that could safely and accurately 
be made to reach this planet. Huge missiles would demolish it 
if they struck our egg-shell formation, and would drift idly into 
space if they failed to hit. As a markman the sun would be 
deficient, for its impulses are natural rather than executive. It 
may be argued that an enormous proportion of the rays of the sun 
if atomic and therefor material, must escape all planets and other 
bodies and be lost in space. This is not the fact, however. Light 
diminishes rapidly by the force of its own attraction; and while its 
impulse makes straight lines, the burden of that impulse is affected 
by a temptation to diffuse. Thus the rays of the fire-stars of the 
sky come to us in broken lines, while those of the planet are more 
steady. 

A line of light is a procession of infinitesimal cannon-balls 
shot from the sun at an inconceivably high rate of speed. Allowing 
that they seek the farthest limit of space, they would be retarded 



38 



IMMORTALITY 



by the attraction of the sun, and thus held within the solar system. 
By the atomic laws they would combine among themselves, ere they 
came to a full rest. They would be grouped -by twos, threes, hun- 
dreds, clusters, meteors, asteroids and planets in the course of time. 
Attraction is everywhere active. Two atoms would unite. They 
would soon be four, eight, a hundred, a thousand, a million, and, 
in the course of time, they would constitute a piece of matter as 
large as a grain of sand. Other grains would be forming at the 
same time. It would not be long before these grains would be 
attracted to one another and make larger fragments, which would 
repeat the same process until still greater masses had been formed. 
All planets and all floating matter in the solar system must have 
been created by this means. There is no other way of fully 
accounting for all the conditions that are known to exist. The 
rotundity of orbs is more readily explained in this way than in any 
other; for the unending pelting of their surfaces from all directions 
would tend to make them round. The globule theory, or drop of 
molten matter cooling to a solid, cannot be sustained under a close 
examination. 

While the atomic theory of planet building is not essen- 
tial to our argument, but is an incident thereof, it is always 
demonstrated in geology at whatever turn we take. The various 
rock formations of the crust of the earth, the strata that hold the 
history of the past in their solid pages, may have been indebted to 
the sun's atoms for their material; although this is not true of soil 
washings that have accumulated. Yet geology laughs at a million 
years as nothing. Multiply a hundred million years by 3,650,000,- 
000 meteors per year that come to our planet, and the accumula- 
tion from this source alone is astounding. Yet in our opinion the 
rays of the sun deposit as many atoms and as much bulk in the 
same time as these shooting stars. Geology should not fail to make 
some recognition of both these sources of supply. It is true that 
meteors would reach the earth from all directions, in the poles as 
well as throughout the other zones, and the roundness would not 
be affected; but the atomic material from the sun would hardly add 
much to the polar climes, and the earth's equatorial diameter would 
exceed that of the polar axis. This is found to be true, but may 
be accounted for in other ways. The shifting of the earth's axis, 
and the changing of the climates, would tend to equalize the diam- 
eters, if the cause of difference was due to atomic supply; and we 



MAN'S MATERIAL ORIGIN 



39 



find that the axis has shifted and the climate changed in the past. 
Southern Europe and especially France, are known to have been, 
at one time, frigid arctic zones. With the present diameter of the 
equator larger than any other diameter of the earth, there is no 
explanation for it but atomic accumulation, unless the earth had 
been remelted, or its crust had yielded considerably to its new 
centrifugal force. 

At all events we have shown conclusively that the earth is 
cumulative; and it cannot be in dispute that the sun is the source 
of the solar system; although the source of the sun is another and 
far different problem. Our third law states that all activity affects 
matter. This will be traced through subsequent steps in this 
work. "We hold that action and matter are co-related; that there 
can be no action unless something material acts. With so fine a 
texture as a garment of atoms, even the soul could be entirely 
material. Let us keep in mind the steps we have taken thus far, 
for they lead to others before the end comes in sight. We must 
remember that the origin of the solar system was the power that 
sent the sun rolling into this domain; that the sun has given forth 
its own substance in the creation of the planets and other occupants 
of this section of space; that the earth is from the sun, and was 
originally in it as an individual part of the mass; that the earth 
was, is, and will continue to be, added to from the substance of the 
sun, and that man's destiny is locked in the problem of the sun's 
future gifts to the earth. We are now ready to take another step. 



CHAPTEE VII. 



BUILDING THE FORESTS. 



[ 604 ] 




OTIVITY pervades all matter. 

This is the 604th Kalston Principle. It represents both 
a law and a fact. Nothing is dead. If we deprive an 



animal of its life, it falls to the ground a writhing, quiver- 
ing mass of flesh, and soon is still. The heart does not beat, the 
pulse is silent, the breath is gone; but the animal is just as active 
as before. It is true that his machinery has run down, but that is 
his use of the faculties and functions of the body as a whole. Even 
in life every particle was active, whether of bone, muscle or flesh. 
What, you ask, were the bones active? Yes. Veins of blood 
circulated through them. New material came every day to take 
the place of the old, although the changes were hardly perceptible. 
The nails and hair were continually wasted and renewed. 

Now the animal is dead. But the activity rather increases 
than decreases. In a few days a countless horde of invaders, 
attaching from within, will resolve the mass to new combinations; 
gases and odors will escape; fluids will soak the ground; larger 
vermin life will eat from the flesh, and in time the bones only will 
remain. They have their day, and pass to earth. The life of a 
bone in a living animal is quite different from its activity under 
the slow process of dissolution. In the vegetable world we find 
hard shells that resist decay for a long time; but their particles are 
active, and time is of little consequence in the history of matter. 
Iron is certainly obdurate in appearance, but note how quickly it 
turns to rust. The everlasting hills, the rocks supposed to be as 
ancient as the sun, but in fact in their infancy when that orb was 
mature, are all full of activity. No rock is devoid of porousness, 
and in these apertures the water congeals and expands until they 
crack and crumble; and even in undisturbed solitude buried miles 
from the surface, their particles are grinding out the next step 
in their destiny. In one age, rock; in another, fragments; in an- 
other, gravel; another, sand; then loam; again petrified; back to 
dormant repose; and so the story moves on from aeon to aeon. 

(40) 



BUILDING THE FORESTS 



41 



Matter is active for man's benefit, if our conclusions are 
correct. But this does not so seriously concern us at this stage. 
It is enough that we have these laws to rest upon: first, that there 
is no activity except it affects matter; second, all matter is affected 
by activity. Material may be in a dormant state, as in the case of 
rock buried beneath ice or other rock; or, as is supposed, in the 
case of the moon which is reputed to have lost its heat. It has 
the power of attraction, nevertheless, and lifts our oceans into 
tides and our earth away from its under waters for the secondary 
tides of each day. The moon may be dormant from age; or in 
process of growth through accumulation; for it must be con- 
stantly receiving meteors and atomic material to the same pro- 
portionate extent as the earth. 

A black rock called coal contains a tremendous volume 
of pent up energy, needing only a fire to start it into a blaze. Its 
activity is held in abeyance, but is nevertheless present. Its origin 
and formation may explain one of the processes of earth accumula- 
tion. A glance at a lump of coal shows clearly that it is petrified 
vegetation, consisting of trees, branches, roots, leaves and twigs. 
There are about 8,600 known fossil species of plants, and of these 
about 2,000 are from coal measures. Some are formed in forests, 
and others in swampy marshes, the coal veins varying from a foot 
or less to fifty feet or more in thickness. Imagine a forest deposit- 
ing its leaves for a few hundred years until they become a new 
soil choking the great trunks and admitting a younger growth; 
and over this mixture the broken limbs and dead tops are scattered; 
and you have a typical coal field. Time and overhead pressure 
are necessary to petrify the mass; and there it lies buried for many 
thousands of years, until the earth is ripe for man's coming. Then 
it is ready to serve him in various ways; as fuel, oil, tar, gas, pencils, 
and their related uses. 

That these beds are of vegetable origin is shown in 
many ways. The remains of extinct vegetation are found in 
abundance at the coal seams, or close by. These vegetable remains 
have themselves been partly turned to coal, and still retain their 
original form and structure. Even the structureless portions of 
the coal beds, including the hardest anthracite, when suitably pre- 
pared and examined with a microscope, show vegetable structure. 
The ashes of coal show vegetable cells and characteristic markings. 
A perfect gradation may be traced from wood to peat, through 



42 



IMMORTALITY 



brown coal, lignite, and bituminous coal to anthracite and graphite, 
showing that these are all different steps in the same process. 
Finally, the most structureless peat, by hydraulic pressure, may be 
made into a semi-coal. These are the proofs of the vegetable 
character of the great coal beds of the world. 

A workable seam must be at least two feet in thickness. 
Mammoth seams are the result of combinations of many smaller 
seams, separated by thin partitions of clay. Thus one field grew 
above another, taking root, thriving and dying. In the north of 
England there are thirty such fields, one above the other. In 
Nova Scotia there are eighty. In South Wales, there are ninety- 
eight; in Westphalia, one hundred and sixteen; in Belgium, one 
hundred, and so on. Their aggregate thickness is something 
enormous. In Pennsylvania they are 4,000 feet; in West Virginia, 
4,500; in Indian Territory, 8,000; in South Wales, 12,000, and in 
Nova Scotia, 13,000 feet. This thickness, while not uniform, is 
sufficient to denote the character of the process and the long periods 
of time required. 

If these fields of coal were confined to spots only, we 
might have some difficulty in reaching the only conclusion that is 
now possible; that is, if we depended alone on this source of in- 
formation for proof. There are other means, however, and they 
corroborate the results. The coal fields of themselves furnish 
absolute proof, when we look at their extent. The Pittsburg seam 
now extends over 14,000 square miles; and, allowing for removal 
by denudation, its original area was about 90,000 square miles. 
Coal fields abound almost everywhere. In little Ehode Island 
they show an area of 500 square miles; in Michigan of 6,700; in 
Nova Scotia, 18,000; in the so-called Appalachian fields, 60,000; 
in the Central, 47,000, and in the Western, 78,000 square miles. 
This for the United States alone and its outskirts. Other countries 
are equally favored; and so small a domain as England has 12,000 
square miles of coal area. It must be remembered that the dis- 
covery and working of the coal seams have been made possible by 
the upheaval of the strata, thus showing their edges to the eye of 
man; and that much of the area of the world is still hidden. An 
idea of the size and extent of a single field may be obtained from a 
glance at the Appalachian, whose area begins in Northern Penn- 
sylvania, covers the whole of Western Pennsylvania and Eastern 
Ohio, nearly all of West Virginia and Eastern Kentucky, East 



BUILDING THE FORESTS 



43 



Tennessee and Georgia, and ends in Middle Alabama. Yet this 
is but one of the coal fields of the world. 

Some inquiries are pertinent at this time, and will be 
pursued in subsequent chapters. The geological period to which 
the coal fields belong, is called the palaeozoic, and represents a 
rock system forty thousand feet thick. This is not known by going 
down into the earth for that distance, but because the strata or 
layers of rock have been upheaved and their edges exposed. What 
was once horizontal, is thrown to a perpendicular position. In this 
palaeozoic period of forty thousand feet of rock-thickness that 
covered the earth, soil once existed, and trees grew. From what 
source did the forests take their foliage for centuries until they had 
buried themselves out of sight and choked to death in their own 
accumulation? We go to the woods for loam made from crumbling 
leaves, and find it rich soil. In such conditions the coal forests 
thrived. A careless geologist might answer that coal fields were 
in river basins, afterward upheaved, and that the strata were 
formed by deposits of sediment washed along the shores from over- 
flowing banks. This is true of many strata in geological history; 
but it is not and cannot be true of the coal strata. First, such 
sediments never fall in appreciable quantities except at the edge 
of water; and the vast width, length and thickness of all coal fields 
preclude the idea of their formation at edges of streams, lakes or 
oceans, or even in basins large enough to contain them; for no 
such conditions have ever existed. It is true that moisture is 
necessary to coal production. Dampness, vegetation and great 
pressure are the requisites of a future coal seam. Another reason 
is quite conclusive in itself. The character of all the great coal 
fields shows that pure coal has been made, in simple seams requir- 
ing thousands of years to form. In this pure coal there is abso- 
lutely no sediment, soil or deposit of any kind whatever except the 
leaves, branches and trunks of the trees or vegetation that became 
so petrified. The coal burns to its own ash; and the ash is in 
exact proportion to the vegetation, as is seen from burning the same 
quantity of matter from the living forest of to-day. Wood, when 
consumed by fire, leaves a small percentage of ash. 

Another fact is worthy our attention in this place. Wood, 
trees, branches, leaves, vegetable loam and their own decay are 
quite light in weight and expanded in bulk compared with the 
coal they produce. It is also well known that an enormous pres- 



44 



IMMORTALITY 



sure is necessary to convert vegetation into coal, to petrify it in 
fact. Two things are to be considered. To change vegetation 
to coal, the pressure must transform the thickness of the former 
to the specific gravity of the latter; and this alone would reduce it 
considerably in thickness. More than this, it is known that vege- 
tation loses four-fifths of its composition in changing to coal. A 
forest of trees two hundred feet high might not make a coal seam 
thicker than ten feet. The rate of such development seems to 
have been about one inch in seventy years; at which rate it would 
have required more than eight million years. This time may be 
lessened on the theory that all life was more vigorous in those 
earlier periods than now. The shortest estimate is one million of 
years for the formation of the coal fields; and this is undoubtedly 
too short. 

These forests grew one above the other ; and were sep- 
arated by thin deposits of sediment as a basis for a new forest over- 
head. When one had accumulated so much leafy loam as to choke 
it to death, the branches and tops naturally crumbled away, and 
all was leveled. Over the grave of the first forest the rains, aided 
by accumulations, washed a cover of shale or clay with other 
material, and there it lay until a new forest was started. This 
proceeded to completion, and was itself buried in the same way. 
Then came other forests overhead, until, in some instances, more 
than one hundred had been placed, tier above tier, and the whole 
scene closed up for the change that was to follow. Mams future 
fuel was now ready to be cooked, pressed and preserved. It may 
be asked why, if there are ten millions of meteors falling to the 
earth daily, some of them are not found embedded in the coal. 
The answer is that meteors are almost always consumed as soon as 
they touch the atmosphere. The friction of the air produces an 
intense heat which instantly converts the meteor to a chemical 
gas. This gas floats in the atmosphere until such time as it may 
be used. Trees convert gases to solids, and much of the growth 
of a forest consists of air and moisture free from the ground. 

Whence came these miles of accumulation of vegetation 
in the carboniferous period? They were not sedimentary deposits, 
except in the thin layers between. They were not formed by the 
nutrition of the soil beneath, for tiers of forests could not have 
risen above each other by such means. It must not be forgotten 
that, when we find ten thousand feet of coal, this mass represents 



BUILDING THE FORESTS 



45 



perhaps two hundred thousand feet of forest height, or not far 
from forty miles, with solid rock beneath and above. If forests 
grew one on top of the other to a height of forty miles, and ex- 
tended north, south, east and west, not less than 150,000 square 
miles in the United States alone, as far as is now discovered, it 
is certainly a question of no ordinary magnitude where this tre- 
mendous mass came from. The attempt to answer it by saying 
that it was deposited as sediment from moving waters, is absurd; 
and our very next chapters will show how ridiculous such an ex- 
planation must be. Geologists admit the addition of matter from 
meteors, but have never studied the material qualities of the sun's 
rays. The meteors seem to play but a small part in the growth 
of the crust; and this is not appreciated for the reason that mete- 
oric substance is added almost entirely to the gases of the atmos- 
phere; although the chemist knows that such gases find their way 
to the ground and become solids. Yet the geologist fails to grasp 
the effect of this accumulation. It is so little. But time means 
nothing if a world is to be built. Some of the ablest geologists of 
the age preface their treatises with the remark that the student of 
this science must learn to omit all considerations of time. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



THE CEADLE OF LIFE. 



[ 605 ] 




HE crust of the earth consists of sun-deposits. 

This is the 605th Ralston Principle. It represents a fact 
rather than a law. That this fact is capable of easy proof 



we shall see. There is no form of argument that can pos- 
sibly lead to any other conclusion. If the nebular hypothesis is 
advanced, the reply will be simply that the sun and earth are one 
and the same substance. All foreign matter that has been thrown 
upon our planet from every quarter of the sky has been of material 
like our own chemical elements. We have had fire-balls, nuggets, 
rocks, stones, pebbles, old iron and other junk thrown on this 
globe; and if there is anything else in the sky of which we have 
not had samples, we shall probably never know it. Under that 
theory we are certainly part and parcel of the sun. If we take 
the theory of accretion from the material of the sky, it is the same 
thing. No one pretends that the lesser bodies came from any 
separate source. The atomic theory is closely allied to the others. 
Its only variation is rather an explanation of the nebular hypoth- 
esis; and it maintains that the atoms of the sun, being material, 
are now carrying on the process of depositing further crust over the 
surface of the earth. 

It is necessary that we look at this crust briefly, and ascer- 
tain, if possible, what it consists of, and how it came here. We 
have taken a peep into astronomy in some of the preceding chap- 
ters; now our attention is called to geology. This is a history of 
the earth as recorded on its rocks and soil. We are made aware 
of the two great divisions of the crust; the first is the unrecorded 
period, which lies under all the rest, and is known to exist, but of 
it nothing definite can be ascertained. It is a long depth of under 
rock of tremendous thickness and impenetrable material. If you 
ask a geologist how old this lower portion of the crust may be, he 
will tell you that it is probably a thousand million years old, but 
may not be more than half that age; and he will say this in a 
nonchalant manner, as if the answer meant nothing. 

(46) 



THE CRADLE OF LIFE 



47 



The recorded rocks are all above the unrecorded, and have 
afforded some means of making an estimate, and it is to them that 
we will give our attention. Taken as a whole, they are supposed 
to embrace a lapse of time not exceeding one hundred million 
years as the maximum, and thirty million years as the least. Please 
remember that this estimate applies only to the recorded history 
of the crust of the earth. When the first of the geological periods 
began, it found the earth nearly as large as now; a tough looking 
barren rock, as empty of all signs of life as our moon. This much 
abused satellite is charged with being a wornout world, a sort of 
heavenly tramp, guilty of vagrancy; but the fact probably is that 
she (the moon) has not yet had her day. At least we know that the 
earth was as empty and barren in the early days of time as the 
moon is now. 

Let us imagine a ball of rock floating through space, as 
irregular as you please, and tending to almost any shape. It was 
either a solid ball, or else hollow, with a crust. If solid, it may 
have been either hard or soft within; or, as some say, molten; or 
it may have been empty in the greater portion of its interior, with 
a molten mass just under the surface. That is, the crust may have 
been hard on the outside and liquid on the under part. The fact 
that volcanoes emit burning material that comes from a great depth, 
tends to confirm this theory. For our purpose it is not necessary; 
but it is important to know that the outer surface was a barren and 
empty rock. Here we have our beginning as a planet of progress. 

There are five periods known to recorded rock-systems ; 
and these are analagous to the history of mankind; fading and un- 
certain in the beginning, but more accurate and replete with details 
as we approach the present. Of these five periods the earliest is 
the Archaean. It is only in recent years that this has been added 
to the geological accounts; formerly the Palaeozoic was the primary 
era. The Archaean is merely a story of rock. No organic remains 
either of animal or vegetable structure, have ever been found in 
this age. If the under rocks had never been disturbed, they would 
never have been written about; for they lie so far beneath the 
earth's surface that there is no means known whereby they could 
have been reached. However, in the upheavals of various epochs, 
they have been dislodged from horizontal beds and placed partly on 
edge, their broken lines cropping out in Canada and nearly a score 
of States in the Union. In Canada they show a thickness of 50,- 



48 



IMMORTALITY 



000 feet. This Archsean rock undoubtedly extends from the Arctic 
zone to the Southern States and beyond the Eocky Mountains; and 
its further extent is probable. It is said to circle the globe. 

It is stated by scientists that the Archaean rock is a sea 
botom, from which it is argued, that North America at one time 
was an ocean. This is not definitely known. That water has been 
abundant is true; but water would almost evenly cover the entire 
globe, allowing for the difference in bulk at the equatorial region, 
due to the revolution of the earth; all of which is true, providing 
the planet was round. The contraction of the surface and break- 
ing up of the waters would result in anything and everything that 
we might find or expect to find. It is probable that this rock 
system extended around the globe. Our chief interest is in the 
fact that it could not have been deposited by the action of waters, 
and that it rested on a mass of rock equally beyond any such claim. 

No organic remains as structures have been found in the 
Archaean period; but it is true that vegetable life must have existed 
there, and that the lowest forms of animal creation also came into 
being at this time. Imagine a mass of rock, as it now lies, 50,000 
feet thick, circling the globe, with nothing above it, except clouds 
and dense atmospheres laden with vapors of all kinds. In the 
lower half of this belt rock abounds, but empty of life. Under it 
nothing but rock; all rock. Above it in the millions of years that 
are to follow, are to come four later periods, whose combined 
material will add about 50,000 feet more, to bring it to the year 
1898. This heaping up of material is chargeable to river deposits 
and drifting sediment, some of which is true to a certainty, but in 
meagre degree; while most of it is clearly untrue. A man cannot 
lift himself over the fence by pulling at his bootstraps; no more 
can the earth cover itself with 100,000 feet of sediment in the 
form of deposits washed from even the highest mountains on its 
surface to make its surface. If such a thing is possible, then a 
man can bury himself with himself, and hide himself a hundred 
feet beneath himself by using himself as a covering to extend that 
much distance above himself. The claim is made by many that the 
gases of the air furnished solid material, and that the air then 
must have been denser than now. This is probably true, and it 
it in line with our argument. 

The sun charged the atmosphere then as now with its 
own atomic material; but no condition or depth of atmosphere 



THE CRADLE OF LIFE 



49 



could of itself account for the stupendous bulk that has been added 
to the surface of the earth, unless that atmosphere were repeatedly 
and continually supplied from some source. The only source 
possible is the sun, and the conclusion is certain that the crust of 
the earth has been built by the great central globe of our solar 
system, and that the matter in which we dwell, and of which we 
are a part, consists of sun-deposits. 

\ 606 1 

The nature of the sun-deposits varies with each step 
of geological history. 

This is the 606th Ealston Principle. It represents a fact, a 
law, and a doctrine of eternal life. As far as it is a fact, we will 
discuss it at this place. We have already said that the Archaean 
period of the rock-systems was devoid of all evidences of organic 
remains, either animal or vegetable. But, while such remains are 
not found, there are abundant evidences of their having existed in 
that early era. These are furnished by the presence of iron and 
limestone in the Archaean rock. How is iron a sign of animal life? 

Iron ore is accumulated in the following manner. At the 
bottom of peat-bogs is often found a hard pan of iron ore, some- 
times a foot or two thick. The same material, in the present age, 
is known to collect in spots where there is no bog; but this is due 
to the fact that soluble iron is washed out of rocks by water con- 
taining an excess of carbonic acid, which is produced by decompo- 
sition of organic matter. Meteors and comet-material deposited 
on our earth, day by day, in the present year, as in every age 
probably, are known to bring carbonic acid ; and this may have been 
the source of iron colorings in the Archaean period, rather than 
the supposed vegetation. It is nevertheless true immense iron 
beds have been found. If they can be relied upon to furnish evi- 
dence of organic life one hundred million years ago, such life was 
purely vegetable. 

If animal life existed, the fact must be assumed from the 
presence of limestone, which is undoubtedly abundant in the 
Archaean rocks. Limestones are composed of shells which formerly 
held life; some of the occupants being a low order of vegetation 
such as nullipores and coccoliths, and a low order of animal exist- 
ence such as rhizopods. It is of importance to us at this stage, 



50 



IMMORTALITY 



to know just what life did exist on the earth so many millions of 
years ago; and we are brought face to face with six facts: first, no 
life whatever was here unless it is indicated by iron, graphite and 
limestone; second, iron, graphite and limestone abound in the 
Archaean period, for they are now seen in the rocks of that era; 
third, iron is associated with organic life; fourth, graphite is the 
direct result of vegetable, and never of animal, life; fifth, graphite 
appears in great beds in this earliest period; sixth, limestone is the 
skeleton or shell structure of low organisms, either vegetable or 
animal. The graphite that abounds is so allied to the iron that 
the latter cannot possibly indicate anything but vegetable life, 
even if it does that. It may as well be stated here as elsewhere that 
our only means of knowing is by comparing the processes of more 
recent periods with the results of earlier epochs. We know that 
iron is forming noAv in peat bogs, and that coal and graphite may 
form above them. The iron is at the bottom; or, as some state it, 
beneath the peat bogs; the coal is above the iron, and the graphite 
above the coal. 

It is reasonable to assume that vegetable life existed in 
the Archaean era; and this is generally accepted as a fact by geol- 
ogists. But what about animal existence? The evidence is so 
meagre as to be set down as chiefly guesswork. In the Laurentian 
limestones of Canada, Bohemia, Bavaria, and other places where 
the Archaean rocks have cropped out, there have been found large, 
regular cellular masses which are said to be the shelly remains of 
rhizopods of unusual size. This is all. If the supposition is true, 
then man's first ancestor, or, to be more accurate, his first pred- 
ecessor, appeared on earth in that far distant period. The word 
protozoa means first life, in the sense of animal existence, and a 
rhizopod is the lowest, earliest form of protozoa. If the theory 
of evolution is true, then all animal creation, including man, is 
centered in this one source for its origin. We know this: that 
either no animal life whatever existed then; or else only the lowest 
form of protozoa appeared. 

The age of the earth is always an interesting topic. Prior 
to the dawn of recorded geology, it is all guesswork; but it is hardly 
probable that it is less than a thousand million years old. Yet it 
may not be much more than a tenth of that. It may be true that 
the earth was young when the Archaean rocks were first begun; 
for they are strata, or layers one above the other, more than 50,000 



THE CRADLE OF LIFE 



51 



feet thick. Geologists tell us that this immense bed of rocks was 
shifted through millions of years of drift, deposit and sediment- 
washings, from' a continent once raised and occupying the region 
of the Arctic zone, in the form of tropical mountains; that these 
mountains were carried down to the present Temperate zone, and 
petrified; that, when the thickness had reached ten miles, upheavals 
raised the sunken ocean beds which held these deposits, now rocks, 
and made them into continents, over which ten miles more of wash- 
ings came; and the crust of the earth, as it now appears, was the re- 
sult. All this cannot be true; for the depth is too great and the era 
too extensive to admit of such additions. Nor could the source of so 
much material be anywhere found on the earth itself. Mountains 
were never ten miles high, and certainly could not be assumed to 
be twenty miles high to accommodate a theory. Even if so great 
an elevation could be imagined, it must not only be a mountain, 
but a continuous chain or upland four times higher than the 
highest peak of earth. It is only by accumulation from other 
sources that this crust was built. Let the age preceding the 
Archaean rocks be much or little, we are enabled to do more than 
guess the time that has elapsed since the first stratum of that period 
was laid. The nearest to a satisfactory assumption is that it was 
deposited at the rate of one thousand feet in one million years. 
We know there are 50,000 feet of Archaean rock, and this calcula- 
tion would place the age of that period as fifty million years. It 
equals all the combined periods of geology since then, so that the 
recorded, or rock history of the crust of the earth indicates the age 
we have previously stated of one hundred million years, since the 
beginning of the Archaean rock. 

The value of such inferences is important; and many 
curious facts are developed. For instance, the lowest situations 
of Archaean rock are devoid of evidences of organic life; but as 
we ascend we find possibilities only of such existence, chiefly vege- 
table. Above this, is the possibility of animal organisms, but of 
the lowest order of the lowest kind of such life. Then, above that 
vast mass, is the Cambrian rock, where the evidences are more 
satisfactory. It is a ladder, a succession. Geologists claim another 
fact of value; that is the stratified appearance of the Archaean 
rocks indicates that they w*ere formed from the debris of other 
rocks or other land, existing as many millions of years before them. 
This inference would lead to an endless circle, while the progress 



52 



IMMORTALITY 



of the earth points to ascension and advance in each stage of 
growth. Our claim is that the strata were the results of accumula- 
tion, deposits, sediment, washings, all combined; each of which 
class of accretion would help the other. The crust of the earth 
certainly consists of sun deposits, whether under the nebular or 
other theory; and the deposits certainly vary in their nature with 
each step of geological history. These facts will appear more and 
more clearly as we proceed. 



CHAPTER IX. 



ANCESTRY OF ANIMAL LIFE. 



[ 607 ] 




>HE earth's development is progressive. 

This is the 607th Ralston Principle, and represents a law 
as well as a fact. In the proof of these principles, it must 



not be assumed by the reader and student that all data may 
be placed under one division or in one chapter, relating to the 
claim advanced. Thus, in dealing with such principles as the 605th 
and 606th, we find much to be said in subsequent chapters that 
bears directly upon them. In showing that the earth's develop- 
ment is progressive, we shall also show that the sun deposits on the 
crust of the earth vary with each step of geological history. 

A few terms should be fixed in the mind. It is not our 
intention to burden you with unusual words; yet the simple terms; 
well known to geology, will not be too hard for you, even if you 
are not a student. 

Archaean. — This word means ancient. It is applied to the 
earliest known rocks in geology. It is the first era of the recorded 
history of the earth; that is, recorded in the rocks of the earth's 
crust. It includes in its lower half no organisms; therefore is 
said to include an epoch prior to all life. It includes in its upper 
half certain evidences of vegetable and limestone life, in which 
primitive animal organisms may possibly have existed; therefore is 
said to include earliest life, or the dawn of existence. 

Protozoa. — This word means first life in the animal kingdom. 

Rhizopod — This is the lowest protozoa, and the beginning 
of the animal kingdom. The shell was the skeleton or house 
made by the life that dwelt therein; and, after its death, the shell 
remained, and has remained these millions of years. This is the 
chalk we use in school. Some of the pyramids of Egypt were 
made of the same material, rhizopod limestone. 

"Dawn animal." — This name is applied to the shell struc- 
ture of a rhizopod found in Canada and elsewhere. The strict 

(53) 



54 



IMMORTALITY 



geological name is Eozoon Canadense. It is not certain that it is 
of animal origin. It appears to be. If so, it is far lower than any 
other rhizopod; and, by far, the earliest form of compound proto- 
zoa. By this is meant the first attempt of protozoa to combine 
into an organic structure. 

Above the ancient rock of the Archaean period we find 
the next layer in the growth of the earth's crust. Despite up- 
heavals throughout much of the globe, it always appears that the 
Cambrian deposits are on the upper side or above; that the Silurian 
deposits are still higher up; that the Devonian deposits are above 
those, and the coal measures at the top of them. All these com- 
bined are called the period of ancient life; or, in geology, paleozoic; 
the first part of the word meaning ancient, and the latter part life. 
It is so called because life was known to exist beyond all doubt 
and in great abundance, comparatively speaking, in that era. As 
the Archaean epoch was as long in time as all the periods following 
put together, so the Paleozoic of itself was equal to all that fol- 
lowed it. 

It is interesting to note how gradually life came upon the 
earth. The beginning was small and faint, and organic existence 
was of the simplest and lowest order. The first fauna are found in 
the Cambrian, or under strata of the Paleozoic period. These 
fauna, or animals, appear in variety, and are interesting as well as 
remarkable from the fact that they contain representatives of all 
the great types of animals except the vertebrates, to which man 
belongs. While the many varieties of life came gradually upon 
the earth in the Cambrian period, it seemed that the time was not 
ripe for the higher class. Perhaps the conditions were not favor- 
able. The vegetation was rank and magnificent; over four hun- 
dred species of plants being found. Yet, owing to the greater de- 
structibility of vegetation, much must have been lost. Animals 
are better preserved in the fossil state. The lowest of the proto- 
zoan organisms in the Cambrian era, were sponges, now parts of the 
rocks that are millions of years old. Then came a wonderful leap 
in the line of progress. 

A severe blow is dealt to the theory of evolution by the 
great gap between this lower rhizopod life and the vast array of 
types that came upon earth with startling suddenness, in a geolog- 
ical sense. The difference between progressive development and 
a steady gradation must not be lost sight of. Every step has been 



ANCESTRY OF ANIMAL LIFE 



55 



in the line of progress; but there is no proof that each advance is 
the outcome of its immediate predecessor. It requires not only 
theory, but also a hard straining of facts and twisting of evidence, 
to sustain the doctrine of evolution, or the claim that one advance 
is the parent of another. The rhizopods are in no sense related, 
except that they are all rhizopods; as we shall show later on that 
negroes, Chinese and Caucasians are separately originated, although 
all are human beings. 

The evidence of geology has a sense of certainty about it, 
as far as it goes. Testimony preserved in great volumes might be 
lost through fire or other means of destruction; but, when solid 
rocks stored miles away from the touch of time or the agency of 
change, unfold their lithographs to the eye of man, their pages 
cannot be disputed. The fossils are the animals themselves, as 
clearly in evidence as the great rocks that hold them; and, when 
we find a leap, as sudden as it is vast, from the rhizopod, or first 
combinations of protoplasm, up to a complete fauna of all animal 
life except vertebrates, the possibility of evolution at once fades 
from consideration. The answer to this is stated by the advocates 
of evolution who find no obstacle too great for them to mount with 
an explanation, although the facts are sadly missing. They tell 
us that evolution is not always an equal advance; that the progress 
is, at times, slow, and at other times very rapid. They point out 
the fact, which all admit, that there have been periods of prolonged 
quiet, followed by periods of rapid and surprising advance; and 
that these alternate eras have appeared from time to time in the 
development of the earth. Yet some of the leading advocates of 
the theory, in fact all the learned supporters of Mr. Darwin's 
views, admit frankly that "in spite of every allowance the sudden- 
ness of the appearance of the first fauna is extraordinary." Argu- I 
ment, suggestion, and explanation have weight only in proportion • 
as they are sustained by facts. In this case the fact is against • 
evolution; the question is, will any suggestion change it to a neutral 
attitude ? 

Coming up the strata we find ourselves in the realm of 
the Silurian epoch, the rocks of which lie above the Cambrian. 
As we would naturally expect, the Silurian species ought to appear 
in greatly increased numbers; and we find nearly eleven thousand. 
In the upper part a few fishes are found, and these are the first 
vertebrates. If man was evolved from the original drop of proto- 



56 



IMMORTALITY 



plasm, and has been brought upon earth through a successive 
gradation of unfolding, it may be a satisfaction to know that the 
fish was his first real ancestor, — the earliest of the vertebrates, of 
which the human family is one species. First, as a chalk-making 
rhizopod, next as a sponge, then a leap into a large variety of 
animals of the lowest class, then another leap to the fish; this is 
the progress of life on the earth. We have no right to question 
motives, nor would it result in any further light on the matter if 
we were to know why so long a time was allowed to elapse in 
bringing man into the world. Why were millions of years frittered 
away in the transposition of the shell-organism to the fish? If 
man was to be evolved, why could not the power that possessed 
the amazing ability to construct the globe, the fauna, the flora, 
and the limitless varieties of life, employ that same omnipotence 
in the task of developing man in a few thousand years? These 
questions are idle. The evidence is tremendously overwhelming 
that some power, altogether too mighty to need stoop to miracles, 
is at work, and ever has been, as a gigantic mind thinking out 
every detail of the creation of man. When we hear it said that 
God never performs miracles because He does not operate in that 
way, we cannot help answering that the most amazing miracle that 
may be conceived pales to nothingness before the simplest steps in 
the development of the earth's crust. Were a miracle a fixed law, 
the least of the fixed laws now known to us would be regarded as 
astounding miracles. 

Having found that the earliest vertebrates appeared in 
the form of fish, and few at that, in the upper Silurian period, we 
would naturally expect an increase of species in the next system 
of strata above. This is the Devonian, and is noted chiefly for 
the fact that fish enough appear in its lower strata to establish a 
fish fauna. In the highest strata of the upper Silurian this kind 
of life first came into existence. It was the sudden dawning of 
vertebrates. It had no progenitor. Nothing has ever been found 
in all the countless fossils yielded up by the record-bearing rocks, 
to indicate in the remotest degree that fish, or vertebrates of any 
kind, were the result of any preceding species. Here is another 
gap, another leap through a long interval. Geology tells us that 
the records are complete, connected and unbroken, as far as this 
single point is concerned. In the lowest Devonian rocks, which lie 
upon the upper strata of Silurian, where the first fish appeared, 



ANCESTRY OF ANIMAL LIFE 



57 



the sudden increase of varieties is most astonishing. In a very 
short time, possibly in a few generations only, the waters of earth 
teem with all kinds of fish, and the museums of the world to-day 
contain their forms as silent witnesses of this miracle of creation, 
if indeed it is a miracle. What it is, we shall try to answer in the 
chapters of this book. 

Let it be remembered that all animals, except the verte- 
brates, came suddenly upon the earth by a leap as singular as it was 
distinct; arid that the next jump in the onward progress of develop- 
ment brings the vertebrates as quickly into existence; in each in- 
stance without parents. The only progenitor of the rhizopods was 
the rock in which they dwelt; the only progenitor of the fish was 
the water in which they swam. Quoting from the united opinions 
of leading geologists and scientists of the highest rank in the 
world of learning, we find it stated that this sudden appearance of 
the vertebrates may in time be partly accounted for by further 
discoveries, although the records are unbroken in the rock systems 
where such life seems to have originated; but that in spite of all 
probable evidence of the future it will always be difficult to account 
for the enormous number of vertebrates that came suddenly upon 
the earth. Theories fail, explanations cannot compass the diffi- 
culty, and suggestions seem idle. It is another great leap; not a 
missing link, but a lost hope searching for a chain that never 
existed. The Darwinians tell us that it is necessary to admit that 
there were "paroxisms of rapid improvement," at certain times; 
that "when conditions are favorable, and the time is ripe for a 
certain change, it takes place with exceptional rapidity, perhaps in 
a few generations." The fact is, the change does take place with 
"exceptional rapidity" at times; and these times seem to be the 
eras of introducing new types of life on earth. 

Above the realm of fish-organisms we find the well 
known coal measures, occupying the land. These have been dis- 
cussed for another purpose in a preceding chapter. It seems that 
the coal formation has been the results of vegetation, chiefly forests, 
on the vast areas of land; and that the only life thus far introduced 
has appeared upon the beaches, along the shores and in the oceans; 
always under water. We know that the rhizopods and the repre- 
sentatives of animal existence dwelt amid the sands of the beaches, 
for the reason that shore-marks of all kinds appear — such as ripple- 
marks, sun-cracks, worm-tracks, borings, broken shells, and similar 



58 



IMMORTALIT Y 



evidences; and that the fish dwelt in the water we know from their 
construction as animals incapable of progress on the land. 

The sun shone in those early days, millions of years ago, 
probably fifty millions at the time when its intense rays, shining 
through a clear sky, cracked the beaches with their heat and dry- 
ness. The earth was not enveloped in clouds of darkness, nor in 
vapors of great height and density, as some have surmised. It was 
not a planet rolling in moisture, smoke and noxious gases unfit for 
life or habitation. On the other hand, the globe was beautiful; 
the air was clear; the clouds were as varied and marked as they 
are to-day; the rains came, and dry weather followed in the same 
intervals as now; the ocean rolled its big waves landward and 
spread them over the beaches in surf, foam and waves before the 
driving winds of storms, or laid them peacefully upon the soft 
sands in periods of calm, just as they do to-day, except that we 
are dwelling on the raised surface bottoms of the prehistoric seas, 
and the old time continents are now under water; the days were 
bright or dark, as the weather changed; the moon shone at night, 
passed through her mutations, and sailed to other climes with the 
same regularity as now; the barren trees of winter took on their 
spring verdure, shone in brilliant hues of green, dimmed in summer 
heat, faded in autumn, and were pinched by killing frosts until their 
funeral tints made all the landscape glorious; the snows of winter 
burdened their branches with ermine, although the tropics had 
no taste of this garnishment; the slimy life of jelly-fish skirted the 
shores, over whose glistening beaches hung the foliage of great 
trees which granted inviting shadows; the swimming fish, large and 
small, darted here and there, plucking its food and devouring lesser 
life; noble rivers ran to the seas; streams, brooks and rivulets 
poured their helpful life to their greater offspring; trees rose to 
commanding height; and all the operations of busy existence held 
full sway on this little planet of ours fifty million years ago, except 
that the land was utterly devoid of animal life; that the waters 
along the shores were teeming with the representatives of every 
type of such life, except the vertebrates, and that the fish of the 
sea supplied those missing vertebrates. All this was established 
then. Man is a vertebrate animal. If he is evolved, then the fish 
is his vertebrate ancestor, and the shelly rhizopod is his rock-bound 
Adam. 

It is probable that the Archaean period began fully one 



ANCESTRY OF ANIMAL LIFE 



59 



hundred million years ago; that the Paleozoic began fifty million 
years ago or more, and that the latter ended about twenty-five 
million years ago. Before its epoch was done, it carefully closed 
its coal mines and sealed them for the future use of man. A 
peculiar fact now appears. It has been stated that no land animals 
had yet come upon earth. At the time of the earliest formation 
of the coal strata, the first known amphibians appeared. They 
were part reptile, and part fish. They really came before the coal 
measures were laid. During the long era of the development of 
coal they are not much in evidence; but, after those are completed, 
the part-reptile is attended by a vast horde of full-fledged life, and 
the first land animals are established in this world. They are 
reptiles of every form; large and small; venomous and ugly. Of 
this the evidence is clear, altogether too clear. 

The method by which reptiles came to dwell here seems 
to assist the doctrine of evolution; but the word evolution means 
three things at least. There is the Darwinian theory of man being 
entirely the product of protozoa and protoplasm, or the vegetable 
cell, by one species giving birth to another; the law of descent by 
continuous parentage. There is the geological system, which is 
necessarily a true one, of evolution in the development of the 
earth's crust; and there is the ordinary doctrine of improvement 
known as evolution. It is admittedly a difficult point to dispose of, 
this transition from fish, or water animal, to amphibian, or half 
land and half water animal, and the change from amphibian to 
full reptile. The strangest thing of all is the fact that the am- 
phibian is half reptile, as well as a half land animal. As its name 
implies, it lives on land or water; though its land residence is close 
to the water. As a reptile it resembles fish of the reptile character 
and construction, and the fact that several distinct species of fish 
can be traced back with absolute certainty to a single ancestral 
species makes it probable that the amphibian was a product of fish 
seeking to establish a race that might occupy the ground. It was 
a transition from water to land. 

Certain facts cannot be escaped. First, the original life 
must have been protoplasm, which was then as now, an active, 
energetic fluid mass, everywhere abundant. It is probable that the 
first protoplasm appeared seventy-five million years ago. It is 
vegetable. Its use determines whether it shall be ultimately vege- 
table or animal. Combinations of every conceivable character may 



60 



IMMORTALITY 



be made, and are made, of protoplasm. If it unites to form the 
life of leaf and branch, the result is still vegetation. If it enters 
into protozoic combinations, it becomes animal. — Second, the 
original animal life must have been a shell fish, or rhizopod, living 
on protoplasm and rock: one obtainable from the water, the other 
from the sand or ground rock in the water. — Third, the original 
vertebrate life must have been a fish, living in the water. — Fourth, 
the production or origin of animal life on land must have occurred 
in the half reptile, known as the amphibian. — Fifth, the origin of 
animal life on land must have been in the reptile, fully and sep- 
arately developed for land residence only. If evolution, in the 
Darwinian sense, is true at all, it is clear enough that man is de- 
scended directly from the reptile. If the progenitor of all land life 
is the amphibian, or water-and-land animal, from which the reptile 
is sprung, then man, under such theory, is the offspring of reptiles 
and fish. "\Ye shall look at these claims as we proceed. However, 
there is one fact from which we cannot escape; that the first animal 
life on land was a reptile. One of two things is true; either that 
man is descended from the reptile, or that the latter is merely his 
predecessor. Neither affords us a pleasant retrospect. 

In the misgivings that attend the study of our origin, one 
satisfaction rises above them all; that the earth's development is 
progressive. Never has it fallen back. It looks forward to some- 
thing better to be achieved in each succeeding age. Xext above 
the coal period comes the Triassic, in which appears the first trace 
of mammals, thus approaching a step nearer to the age of man. 
In the era or rock system above this, they become abundant, fol- 
lowing the methods previously noted; first, a trace; next, an 
abundance of life. So it was with the protozoa; so with fish; so 
with reptiles, and so with mammals. The earth is certainly tend- 
ing toward the human species. In the cretacious period, birds 
first appear as a fauna; but it is probable that they were separated 
from the reptile stem in the preceding period. That they are 
direct descendants from reptiles is clearly established. All geol- 
ogists admit the fact; and all scientists who deal with questions 
bearing upon this line of study, whether they are advocates of 
evolution or its opponents, take it as settled and proved beyond 
doubt that birds are descended from reptiles. The earliest birds 
had teeth, as had the serpents. 

It is not our purpose to further dwell upon the advancing 



ANCESTRY OF ANIMAL LIFE 



61 



ages of the earth's development. Every schoolboy who has looked 
into a geology knows what magnificent strides have been made in 
the later periods, leading down to the era when all was ready for 
the appearance of man. As far as this chapter goes, we seek to 
maintain our assertion that the earth's development is progressive. 
That we have done so is evident. Perhaps too much effort has 
been spent upon a proof that was not needed; but everybody is 
not familiar with the events repeated herein. The learned may 
accept what to them is a well-known fact; but those less favored 
in educational lines are entitled to a full statement of the evidence, 
in order that they may know in what way the fact is reached. 



CHAPTER X. 



SPONTANEOUS LIFE. 



f 608 ] 

LIFE reaches upward to man. 
This is the 608th Ralston Principle. It represents a law 
as well as a fact. It may be regarded as already under- 
stood, although the purpose manifested in the plan of cre- 
ation may be more or less obscure, and the process uncertain. 
Under this principle it is not asserted that man is the ultimate aim 
of the earth's life. Such a claim would require the most careful 
examination before it could be accepted. 

Progress is marked everywhere in the history of cre- 
ation. If matters seem to come to a standstill at any time, it is in 
appearance only. If bog life covered the earth during any con- 
siderable portion of a geological period, the long duration could not 
be called a rest, but merely the slow leavening of the crust. To- 
day man seems the same, as far as we can judge, as he was two 
thousand years ago; that is, as a physical being; but ten thousand 
years of standing still, or even a hundred thousand, need not be 
regarded as evidence of permanent rest. We doubt if there has 
been any era when observation, as conducted by humanity, could 
have detected change in the development of the earth. It has 
all been in the past, noted in results; never in the present. "We 
are denied the opportunity of seeing large changes, although we 
are privileged to behold every step and every result in the records 
of the past; and the one supreme fact stands out in clear relief, 
that a certain goal is sought. 

Can it be possible that so much is true? We see change 
after change; we see steps taken in regular succession; we see the 
ever upward progress of all steps and all changes, and the question 
most naturally arises, What is the goal? Going back to those past 
millions of years when the fish first appeared, we might hear it say- 
ing, if we could imagine that it had the power to talk, "I am the 
first vertebrate. All that has preceded me was made in order that I 
might be brought forth upon this planet. The Dawn Animal 

(62) 



SPONTANEOUS LIFE 



63 



contained the first suggestion that there could be life that was not 
vegetable; and, immediately following him, shell though he was, 
there came all the great types of invertebrates into being. But 
this was not sufficient. A higher type was needed. I am that 
goal, that great end for which all creation exists. I am the first 
vertebrate. In me behold the climax of animal life. Nothing can 
compare with the vertebrate, nothing can equal it, nothing can 
ever exceed it. I am the end. The earth, indeed, is a wonderful 
creation; and I, the first fish, the first vertebrate, am also the last. 
There is nothing higher. Creation hereafter must stand still/ 7 

To that early fish, had he been impressionable with thought, 
the argument must have been conclusive; for nothing equalling 
him had ever appeared; and, therefore, it was quite clear that his 
superior would never be created. This is man's argument to-day, 
with relation to himself. He is convinced that humanity, weak 
and miserable as it is at its best, , is the ultimate end of this glorious 
ball rolling so grandly through the courts of space, and he barri- 
cades that conviction by the well attested fact that not the slightest 
evidence of any superior life can be found, for none has ever been 
found. The fact is true; but is the conclusion safe? If it is, then 
the fish proved absolutely to himself that he was the be-all and 
end-all of creation. So did that august amphibian, millions of 
years after his ancestor, the fish, swam his first stroke; sitting on 
the sand of that old but not primeval shore, dipping his sides in 
the water for cooling moisture, while his head nestled on the bank 
in the shade of a giant tree that protected him from the sun; con- 
templating the proud leap in animal creation, of which he was the 
first representative, and thinking, if he could think at all: "I am 
the first amphibian. Heretofore all animal life has been confined 
to the water. I am double. I am made first for water, then for 
land. Nothing like me ever existed before; and it is therefore con- 
clusive that my superior cannot be created. I am the goal of the 
universe. To be sure, I am a reptile fish; but how else could mov- 
ing life be introduced upon the land? It must crawl, or it would 
fall. After me the world will come to an end." His argument 
was just as valid and weak as that advanced by man to-day. 

No doubt the reptile-fish was a wonderful masterpiece in 
the category of creation. True it is that its equal had never been 
presented to the gaping multitudes that lined the beach and 
studied its elaborate construction. It exceeded all, as man to-day 



64 



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excels all. How would so much thought, time and skill be spent 
upon the intricate and marvelous reptile-fish, if it was not to be 
the climax of creation? It was absurd, positively and ridiculously 
absurd, to suppose otherwise. But time brings changes. A few 
million years roll by, and the reptile himself appears. He is not 
dependent upon the water for any part of his existence or resi- 
dence. The land is his, from ocean to ocean. He is the first, the 
lord of earth. ISTor can it be strange if he extols the fact. "I am 
the first. The water is unstable, and all its life floats and drifts. 
The land is solid. Its foundations are sunk into the core of the 
earth, and they will endure forever. Above those foundations, 
on the soil made for the highest type of animal creation, I, the 
first land dweller, have come to possess my domains. If any life 
succeeds me, it must be reptile, for it shall be from reptile sprung; 
therefore, I am the end of the design by which the universe is 
established/' Part of his argument is certainly sound. All that 
springs from him must be of the reptile type; and so it has been, 
even to man. Human life bears unmistakable evidences of such 
origin. 

A glance at the subsequent steps of progress will serv- 
to emphasize this now apparent tendency toward man. And the 
principle is true whether by evolution or other theory. If results 
improve at every step, what difference does it make whether they 
are evolved or come in separate forms of creation? By evolution, 
as applied to animal life, is meant the origin of one species out of 
another, commencing at the simplest life in protozoa, and improv- 
ing in succeeding lines of descent until man is reached. Contrary 
to this theory is that of diversity, by which is meant that when the 
time is ripe, and the conditions favorable, all varieties of life that 
are suited to thrive at such time and in such conditions, will spring 
into being and occupy the earth. This is the more reasonable 
theory. In either case, it appears that the steps are progressive, 
the tendency onward and upward, and the goal something sublime. 

The theory of evolution, if it applies to the animal king- 
dom must be equally applicable to the vegetable. This is con- 
ceded. Yet there are leaps in the latter that are quite as difficult 
of explanation as any in the former; unless the theory of diversity 
is the true hypothesis. Thus it is known that the world was first 
clothed in vegetation, as though to prepare the way for the animal 
life that must thrive upon it. This fact is always apparent. AYhen 



SPONTANEOUS LIFE 



65 



we say it is known, we say what is admitted to be true by all 
scholars; for the preserved remains of leaves, trees, bones, shells, 
and all organic structures, are unchallengeable witnesses of the 
past. If you find a skeleton complete, in a trunk, in your cellar, 
you may ascertain, through science, whether it is man or brute, 
male or female, and the race to which it belongs. The rock systems 
of the past contain these preserved skeletons; and there is no limit 
to them. - By their successive bits of testimony we can trace the 
steps of descent whereby the horse was brought to his present 
standard of excellence and intelligence; and so with others. In 
some instances these steps have been connected; and, again, with 
the records complete, they have been broken. It would appear that 
evolution is at work to a decided extent; and yet it is certainly 
clear that progress neither depends upon, nor waits for, evolution. 
The fact is many times proved that when conditions are ripe for a 
new life, the life appears, whether by one process or another. 

[~WZ] 

If the animal and vegetable kingdoms were annihi- 
lated they would reappear spontaneously. 

This is the 609th Ealston Principle. It represents a law and 
rehearses a fact. Once in the geological past has this law proved 
itself by overwhelming evidence. Yet the chemical scientist may 
say, "How can that which has been annihilated come into being 
again? For instance, fire burns. We scientists know that we 
are able to destroy the germs of life. Will the seed that has been 
put into the furnace come into bearing?" — No, the thing destroyed 
by fire is done with, although the supposed destruction is merely 
a change of conditions. No man can annihilate a particle of matter. 
His limit is in his power to end for the time being some of the 
combinations of matter. If all the seed of all the species of the 
vegetable world, and all the germs of the animal world were to be 
put through a fiery furnace, would they be destroyed? Yes, as 
seeds and germs. Would they grow again? Not they, in the 
combinations as destroyed. What then? They would re-combine. 
How? Well, how would you expect to obtain life from a ball of 
fire ? 

Suppose the earth were to be dropped into a furnace of 
terrific flames, eating its vitals out from center to surface; into 



66 



IMMORTALITY 



such a furnace, for instance, as the sun, and nothing could be so 
hot as that; would it be reasonable to assume that any seeds were 
left to live? Why not reasonable? The earth has been through 
just that fiery ordeal. It originated in that way. It came from 
the sun. It was a mass of fire at one time, as its conditions show. 
Even now, every meteor that strikes our atmosphere must burn 
to a cinder, even to a gas, and be rehabilitated for life on earth. 
Its chemical elements will remain safe. The globe might burn a 
thousand million years, in the hottest of fires; yet, when she had 
cooled down, it would be found that not one drop of matter had 
been harmed, not an atom destroyed. In the great lining up, when 
the Eecorder of the universe calls the roll, each molecule will 
respond "Here." Then all will go to work to produce the results 
for which they were called into being. 

Matter was practically annihilated at one stage in the 
history of the earth. Before the coal beds were laid, or the coal 
iields formed, this planet was a very watery orb. It seems that 
over-abundant moisture was necessary to prepare the way for the 
vegetable kingdom; and vegetation was necessary to prepare the 
way for the animal kingdom. The most reasonable view of the 
past is that the primeval earth came out of the hot matter of the 
sun and floated in the sky until the particles were brought together 
by attraction. "When a basis was formed, the globe may be said to 
have been established. Over this came a sea of water; in all prob- 
ability producing one endless sheet of ocean, through which no 
land appeared. Just before the coal era, the continents were low 
and narrow, and the seas wide and extensive. The air was loaded 
with moisture, was quiet and stifling, carrying an excess of carbonic 
acid, which rendered it unsuited for warm-blooded animals. Car- 
bonic acid plays an important part in all life. It is coining to the 
earth every day, every minute, every second. Each meteor brings 
its share. The comet tails, through which the earth often passes, 
shows the same presence. 

In that far away era, before the coal measures were formed, 
the land was uninviting, as it lay in marshy fields, almost entirely 
devoid of growth; and great trees rose out of watery forests, low 
and stagnant. This was the ideal home of amphibians. Had the 
land been ready for a higher type of animals, that type would have 
appeared. Yet no flowers grew, no birds sang, no fruits hung 
from trees. Insects and amphibians occupied the underbrush. 



SPONTANEOUS LIFE 



67 



In all this scene of desolation on land, the waters were abounding 
with their wealth of animal and vegetable existence. It had been 
a water world. It was a moist world. Dry land must emerge. 
Even at that time there was a complete, a total absence of all 
modern types of animals and plants. To one who could see it now 
as it was then, who could look down upon those marsh forests, or 
walk along the beaches under the sultry sun, or by the quiet moon- 
light, it would seem another world, in no respect like the earth on 
which we dwell to-day. The ocean beat as incessantly upon those 
shores, and the waves danced to all moods and humors then as 
now, but it was a strange place, as much unlike our planet as we 
presume Mars or Jupiter to be. Perhaps it might remind one of 
a dream visit to some other orb. 

Then came an end. It was destruction. It was annihila- 
tion. The fishes were all destroyed. The insects and the am- 
phibians on land were lost, never to reappear in any subsequent 
age or clime. Strangest of all, the records of geology, which have 
never been challenged, for they are indisputable, show conclusively 
that the entire fauna and flora of that era disappeared. It is a 
fact that not a single species of either the animal or the vegetable 
kingdom survived. The Appalachian revolution was the cause of 
it all. At the end of the coal period the final transition began. 
Type after type fell away; and there emerged new species in every 
direction, and of every description. This is known as the greatest 
change in the history of the earth; and it took place without a 
break in the records. No stronger proof is possible, or desired, that 
the new vegetable and animal kingdoms were introduced simply 
because the conditions had become new and were ready to receive 
them. 

[31] 

When conditions are ripe, life appears regardless of 
evolution. 

This is the 610th Ralston Principle. It represents a law and 
a fact. One illustration of this principle as a fact is found in 
the Appalachian revolution. The conditions of the earth had 
changed; the low narrow continents had been enlarged and ele- 
vated into mountain ranges and broad expanses of dryer land. In 
another part of the globe a vast and almost incomprehensible con- 
tinent had come into existence, connecting South America with 



68 



IMMORTALITY 



Africa and Australia. Think of that! Think of the oceans to- 
day that separate those great stretches of earth, and imagine it 
possible to travel by land from South America to Africa, and not 
touch water until you had reached the farthest verge of Australia! 

The conditions of this dryer and more elevated land were 
not favorable to the plants and animals that had existed, and they 
all passed away, leaving their framework to die and be covered 
with sand and sediment, which afterward hardened into rock and 
preserved them those millions of years. Xew conditions appeared, 
and an abundance of life came to associate with them. There was 
no long and dreary wait, no holding back for the process of evolu- 
tion to bring them into being. In a geological sense, the change 
was sudden and abrupt. Instead of going back to the single 
rhizopod or "Dawn animal,'" which was a very crude shellfish, to 
use a popular term, there came into being a myriad variety of 
shellfishes, and other inhabitants of the waters and beaches. In- 
stead of waiting for evolution to develop the amphibian from the 
fish, the reptile from the amphibian, and the mammal from the 
reptile, the whole lot came on earth in entirely new species, sep- 
arated, disconnected and sundered eternally from their predeces- 
sors. They were of the same types, it is true, but were of distinct 
species and as much higher in the scale of life as the conditions 
were more fitted for such life. The same law would have been 
true at any stage of the earth's history. 

DE] 

Under present conditions were man annihilated, he 
would reappear instantly. 

This is the 611th Ralston Principle. It represents a law of 
the universe, a doctrine of physical creation. The word "man" 
means the humanity of to-day, if the conditions were of to-day. 
The word "instantly" means at once in a geological sense. It does 
not mean that, if man were to be destroyed, as by fire or water, and 
the last human ovum were to perish, the next morning's sun would 
rise on a new race fullfledged and occupying our places without 
interruption. That would be a miracle, a breach of laws; and 
there are now fixed laws enough to reproduce the lost race in an 
instant of time, geologically considered. 

Do you imagine that, if the human race should all die ofT, 



SPONTANEOUS LIFE 



69 



it would be necessary to go back one hundred million years to the 
"Dawn animal," to that miserable little rhizopod, for a new be- 
ginning? Do you imagine that, with the conditions ripe for the 
advent of man, he must wait until he can get evolved before he 
will appear? But, you say, make the application local, and test it. 
For instance, if a plague should remove every man, woman and 
child from Great Britain, would the human race get a new start; 
and, if so, by what process? Our answer to this is, that a local 
application must have dependence upon a general application. 
Great Britain is not a fit place for the birth of man as a race. He 
would not originate now in a place where he could not have orig- 
inated in the past. New laws would be miracles. He must be 
guided by those already established. Humanity was not born in 
Great Britain, nor in Europe, nor in America, nor in Australia, 
probably. The negroes originated in Africa, the other types in 
suited localities; and the Caucasians, the race of true humanity, 
in Central Asia, from which they migrated. Of all this the evi- 
dence is perfectly clear. Let them all become extinct, with the 
conditions the same as they are now and have been for the last ten 
thousand years, and Africa would produce a new race of Africans, 
duplicating those of to-day; Eastern Asia would produce another 
lot of bad Mongols; the island climes would soon teem with 
Malays, and Central Asia would again become the birthplace of 
man, the Caucasian, the white race. 

By what process would humanity be reborn ? The laws 
are stated later; excepting only the principle under which we are 
now proceeding. It has always been true that, when the condi- 
tions were ready,? the life that suited those conditions would come 
into being. To this there has been no exception in the past, and 
should not be now, nor in the future. As a law, this principle 
means much. But the question is, How could a new race of 
human beings come upon earth unaided? Unaided by what? 
There never was a moment when man was unaided. Of himself 
he is as helpless as anything in space. Take away the air, and how 
could he provide for himself? Take away water, and he could not 
drink. Take aw^ay any one of many things, and he- would perish. 
The very wheat-grain that feeds him, and represents in its four- 
teen elements and their seventeen combinations the exact ele- 
ments and combinations and proportions required by the human 
body, was found fossilized millions of years before man appeared. 



70 



IMMORTALITY 



It was made for him alone, for he alone knows how to cook, and 
uncooked it is indigestible. We could spend hundreds of pages 
enumerating the special care that God has taken of this unfortunate 
sinner, this ungrateful and conceited mammal. If he were to re- 
appear he must come as the child of care, aided by all the pro- 
visions that love could instil into the harsh laws of nature. 

An instant of time in geology need not be less than ten 
thousand years. We do not believe the Caucasians have been on 
earth longer than six or seven thousand years. The tradition of 
the Bible, as stated in the opening chapters of Genesis, if applied 
to the Caucasian race, might be true; but, since it is now regarded 
as nothing more than tradition even in theological schools and in 
the ministry everywhere, a comparative view is of no avail. All 
the scholars of all the denominations, in their seminaries and out, 
are teaching that the early chapters of Genesis are to be regarded 
as repeated accounts, originating in tradition, which should never 
have been placed in the Bible, and were probably added to it by 
various authors at different times. Although the question is 
hardly material to the issue under discussion, it may be proper for 
us to state that we think more of the Bible than that; and, when we 
are told in plain language that Cain went into the land of Nod, 
and took to himself a wife, we believe the statement. Nor do we 
believe that he married his sister, or that he needed to send her 
ahead of him into the land of Nod in order to obtain a wife. We 
believe it means what it says, that there was a land of Nod, which 
means that there were other peoples, and that there was a wife there 
for him, which means that Adam, the first man, was the first of 
men, but not necessarily the progenitor of all the races that infest 
the earth. 

Humanity has not existed many centuries. But this 

discussion belongs to later chapters. What we need to say at this 
place is that the evidences of man's recent development are so 
many that we may justly regard it as a sudden creation. How was 
he originated? Some believe that he was created outright; others, 
that he was evolved. Under the Bible account, either theory is 
true. What interests us, is the manner in which it would be done 
to-day, if the races were to become extinct. We claim that, with- 
out miracle, there are laws enough in existence to properly revive 
humanity. First, we find the conditions ripe for his appearance. 
Second, we shall see that laws are fixed and eternal. Third, we 



SPONTANEOUS LIFE 



71 



shall learn that the life that is to appear is funded and becomes 
vital as soon as its dwelling place is prepared. Fourth, the destruc- 
tion of all species of the animal and vegetable kingdoms by the 
Appalachian revolution, and the appearance suddenly of new spe- 
cies in great abundance, following out the old types, but higher in 
the scale of existence, and suited to the improvement in the con- 
ditions of the earth, is conclusive evidence that the funded vitality 
was present undestroyed, and was ready to take physical form as 
soon as its dwelling place was prepared. We see that long waits 
are not necessary. There can be no doubt that seven thousand 
years would suffice to re-establish man on the earth. He would 
start in some way. With the funded vitality of humanity teeming 
in earth and air; with the land and all its foods, flowers and material 
ready and waiting for him; with the conditions ripe, full and 
attractive, there would be no geological delay. It would be an 
instant of time. He springs from the ovum, this comes from 
protoplasm, and protoplasm is so energetic that it would form and 
take life on a drop of crust floating in the most neglected corner 
of the sky. Nothing can destroy protoplasm. It consists of four 
elements, carbon, ox}-gen, hydrogen and nitrogen, charged with 
this vitality of which we speak. These four elements abound 
everywhere, in and out of fire. Once the protoplasm is formed, 
and it is always forming, and once it is charged with human vital- 
ity, the cells that by their union build up the body of man would 
commence to unite; and, in spite of all resistance, accident, assault 
or disaster, a human embryo would soon be under way; not in one 
place or two, but everywhere, as man to-day is diverse and widely 
varying throughout all the globe. Did you ever stop to think that 
there are thousands of distinct and separate divisions of humanity, 
thousands of tribes that cannot be classed within the limits of the 
great races except by far-fetched rules? If you were to see all 
the tribes of Indians, Mexicans, South Americans, North Ameri- 
cans, Esquimaux, Greenlanders and others on this continent, in 
one array before you, and look upon their thousands of tribal 
differences, you would never believe that they ever descended from 
one common stock; yet they are but a handful compared with the 
rest of the peopled globe. In our Caucasian race does it seem as 
if the Scotch, Irish, Welsh, English, French, Spanish (partly), 
Italians (partly), Germans, Jews, Swedes, Russians, Greeks, and 
others almost without limit, were descended from one ancestor, 



72 



IMMORTALITY 



with only six thousand years in which to bring about such vast 
changes in one species, in one type, in one race, in one family? 

All is divers, all varied. The human ovum must find 
lodgment, safety, protection, nourishment, and seclusion. If man 
is made by fiat, this ovum could grow to full stature in a single 
effort, as millions of specimens in the animal kingdom do to-day. 
If he is to develop by gradations, the process of nature is to let 
each life create its necessity. The ovum would make its shell, as 
others are doing continually. From this shell existence it would 
come forth a pigmy, after which the gradations would be simple 
and natural. But the question may be asked, Why this process is 
not going on to-day? We do not know that it is not, in its incep- 
tion; and it is sufficient to know that when a fund of vitality, such 
as that which keeps humanity alive, is able to find its vent in 
already established lines of existence, it will confine itself to those 
channels, as lightning, a vital form of light, will follow to any 
distance a train of accommodating conductors, rather than brake 
its bounds and burst forth to other parts. Still, again, the question 
might be asked, Would not the life around the ovum and the 
embryo devour them? Man came on earth amid enemies from 
every source; and had his destiny been immediate death, so would 
it have been. When you have read the chapter on special design, 
you will readily see why this race must survive all onslaught. 

All principles work together, and should be so studied. 
It is important that we appreciate the readiness with which life 
leaps forward as progress is made in the development of better 
conditions. It is not the life that makes the conditions, but the 
latter that permit the former. We have seen the leap made from 
the "Dawn animal" to the large fauna that contained all types of 
the animal kingdom that was to follow, excepting the vertebrate. 
We have seen the leap made when the first vertebrate or fish ap- 
peared, to that wonderfully large fauna of fish that came soon 
after, without gradation or evolution. We have seen the leap 
made after the first reptile appeared, to a sudden abundance of 
them. So it was with the mammals, the final step toward man. 
We have also seen the Appalachian revolution that swept away to 
destruction every species of the animal and vegetable kingdoms; 
and the spontaneous bursting forth of other species, new to earth, 
that followed in the same types, but of a higher scale. 

The age of reptiles followed this revolution. Never in all 



SPONTANEOUS LIFE 



73 



the long history of the earth, before or since, have there been so 
many reptiles, either in numbers or varieties; never so many in 
variations of size or form; and none so high in the reptilian order 
of civilization. They were the first animals to live upon the land. 
From them came two important divisions, the birds and the mam- 
mals. From mammals came man. The earliest of this valuable 
branch of reptiles appeared in diminutive form, and by some are 
called monotremes. The word "monotreme" means "single-hole/' 
and it was applied to the early mammal because its ducts all term- 
inated that way. The accommodation of nature to conditions 
was seen in the marsupials, or pouch-mammals; by which the ovum 
and embryo need not be matured within the womb as now, but was 
cared for in a marsupium or pouch on the outside of the body. 
These are evidences that the modern species were in anticipation at 
that time. 

Following the age of reptiles came the age of mammals. 
As in one era the crawling animals everywhere abounded, so in this 
the mammals are supreme. It was their turn. Previously the 
reptiles had been so large, ugly, ferocious, voracious and numerous 
that the poor diminutive mammals hied them away and were glad 
for safety. Now a new age was on. The reptiles died down, some 
were exterminated, and others maintained a distant independence. 
It was an era of quadrupeds as well. A mammal is so called from 
its own word-name which means a breast, and includes all animals 
that nurse their young or that bring their young into the world 
alive; as distinguished from those that are produced from eggs laid 
and afterward matured. From shell-life to fish was a step from 
invertebrates to vertebrates; from vertebrates that produced eggs 
to vertebrates that bore their young alive, was a step to mammals. 
The next and supposedly last step, is that which brings man upon 
the earth. But he is not a new type. He has no department of his 
own, but belongs to the vertebrate department, along with fishes, 
reptiles, birds and quadrupeds. He has no class of his own, but 
belongs to the class mammalia, along with quadrupeds. He has 
no order of his own, but is placed by scientists in the order of 
Primates, along with lemurs and monkeys. 



CHAPTEE XL 



PREHISTORIC MAN. 



[ 612 ] 




RIGINAL life was crude. 

This is the 612th Ralston Principle. It states a fact, 
but this fact becomes a background for our future investi- 



gations. Six or seven thousand years ago the conditions 
were the same as they are now. Had man appeared then as fully 
advanced as he is to-day, our hope for the future would be less 
bright, for the very essence of improvement is lacking in such a 
consideration. On the other hand, if it can be shown that the race 
at this time is of better quality than it was at the time of its in- 
ception, we have a right to look forward to something still better 
to come. 

Man is a term that is too flexible for a careful argument 
unless we know just what is intended in its use. If we were to 
create the definition, we should not apply the word to every race or 
every individual that may be included in the term homo. There 
are specimens of depraved barbarism called men, that are as in- 
ferior to the lowest slum life of to-day, as that slum life is inferior 
to the noble men and women of the fair homes of America; and 
there arc steps below the depraved barbarism that seem intermin- 
able. In all ages of history there have been men and barbarians. 
The writers of ancient Greece and Eome, of Egypt, Asia and India, 
so classed the world. To-day it is possible to find every grade 
imaginable: and it is safe to say that there is no savage so brutal, 
disgusting or filthy that his meaner counterpart cannot be found. 
On what principle, or by what rule of justice to the race that rules 
and sways the world, this low order of savagery is allowed within 
the definition of man, it is hard to conceive. Yet he is declared 
to have an immortal soul, and to inherit eternal life. 

There are some animals so degraded in their instincts and 
manner of living that they are shunned intuitively by all else; but 
the lowest of them shine by comparison with certain tribes and 
peoples that are said to belong to the human family. No animals 

(74) 



PREHISTORIC MAN 



75 



are abnormally filthy, totally treacherous, wilfully murderous, 
and brutally savage, at one and the same time, and all the time. 
Yet, because this blight on the face of the earth has a head remotely 
related in shape to the human head, it is called a human being. 
Everything that wears a skull is not a man. Such is supposed, 
however, to be the ancestor of our race. That this is not so, we 
shall see. But let us first ask, who has had the audacity to class 
all the savage tribes of earth with men ? On what authority, human 
or divine, has some one told the world that brute barbarism is 
man's equal at birth and in the hereafter? The great Caucasian 
race must have been in a stupor when it permitted some brazen 
mouthpiece to announce that the miserable hordes of wretches 
that infest this fair planet are brothers of heroic men and women 
who are bearing the standard of progress onward to its goal. 

The proper classification of the human family should 
recognize civilized man as the only man, and should place beneath 
him three other divisions: barbarians, savages, and brute savages. 
Then, if the barbarians are convertible to some degree of civiliza- 
tion, they may come within the scope to be hereafter mentioned. 
But if any person claims that the savages and brute savages are 
human beings, are endowed with souls, and have a hope of immor- 
tality, let such person come forward with his authority for making 
such claim. Who told him so? There is no religion and no 
science that pronounces them human when their every instinct 
is inhuman; or soul-endowed, when it requires the vicious degrada- 
tion of a dozen beasts to produce so low a condition of depravity. 

Civilized man has dwelt upon the earth for six thousand 
years. If there is any proof that he was here earlier, it has not 
come to our notice. Barbarians were here before, as the history 
of Egypt undoubtedly shows. They came upon the earth, about 
ten or twelve thousand years ago. But the man of progress, of 
humanity, of soul, is no older than the Bible declares. We know 
he lived two thousand years ago, because we have the evidence from 
his literature, his language, and his architecture; but six thousand 
years ago he had no literature, no language, and no architecture. 
We are speaking of civilized man. Had he been here ten thousand, 
or fifty thousand years ago, the world would have known it; and 
the remarkable fact that all evidences cease this side of six thou- 
sand years, would not now confront us. We can see them tapering 
away toward nothingness, and they disappear as decidedly and 



76 



IMMORTALITY 



distinctly as do the evidences of the white race in America in four 
hundred years, going backward. 

The first trace of the brute-savage is inferred from geological 
testimony to date back anywhere from ten to one hundred thousand 
years. It is purely guesswork, and is founded on nothing more 
than implements unearthed among strata of rocks, and assumed to 
be the work of an intelligent animal. The first of these are flint 
flakes; but on examination they appear so rough that they may 
have been produced by physical causes. Indeed, it requires a 
stretch of the imagination to regard them as anything more than 
ordinarily shaped pieces of rock. Another class of evidence con- 
sists of scraped bones, as it is claimed. There are parallel lines 
on the bones, but no other evidence that man scraped them. 
Later on there were more flint implements found, but their position 
in the strata, and their indefinite character, rendered it impossible 
to place any reliance on them. 

About one hundred thousand years ago, as it is claimed 
by conservative scientists, a rude race of beings, corresponding to 
man, is supposed to have lived on this globe. They left behind 
them clipped flint implements associated with the bones of the 
horse, mammoth, rhinoceros, hyena, hippopotamus, and other 
companions, as though they had attempted to kill these beasts, and 
had perished with them; although their own bones do not appear. 
So often are such implements found among the bones of beasts, 
that it seems as if the latter must have appropriated the instru- 
ments in some way. These flints are always extremely rude. 

In one or two instances, now historical, the supposed 
human beings have left their skulls behind as tributary evidence. 
A rather high order of ape, or low order of savage, left his skull in 
a cave at Engis, in Belgium. It was afterward found in good 
condition, or enough of it to enable scientists to complete a draw- 
ing of the head, according to the rules of anatomy. Another 
such being did as much for science in a cave at Neanderthal. The 
skull he left there was very thick and very low in the arch; and 
his whole appearance, as told by the bones of his skeleton, indicated 
that he was quite inferior to the Engis specimen. Two other 
skeletons were found in a cave at Spy, Belgium. The Mentone 
man, whose bones were found some years ago, was supposed to 
belong to this earliest period of the race; but recent findings 
throw doubt on the question of extreme antiquity. The four in- 



PREHISTORIC MAN 



77 



dividuals referred to, and some others not as old, seem to make 
it certain that a man-appearing race once lived, probably one hun- 
dred thousand years ago. The evidences surrounding them show 
conclusively that they were not only savages, but savages of the 
very lowest type. They built no houses, but dwelt in caves. Their 
implements were of the rudest kind. They had no domestic ani- 
mals, and knew nothing of agriculture. Their knees show that 
they had bent legs, rather short; and their frames were not erectly 
built. In a still more recent age, other skeletons have been found 
that indicated some advance toward a higher grade of barbarism. 
Fish hooks made of bone; trinkets; ashes and embers; rough draw- 
ings on stone; refuse heaps of shellfish, supposed to have been 
eaten at tribal feasts; polished stone implements, still rudely 
shaped, and other things of the same low order of barbarism have 
been found in quantities. But agriculture was unknown. 

About eight or ten thousand years ago, the lake-dwellers 
of Switzerland, Hungary, Austria, New Guinea and other places 
gave indications of a higher type than the brute savage. Their 
implements were of polished stone and bronze. They probably 
indulged in agriculture. They had domestic animals such as the 
dog, ox, sheep and goat. Wheat, barley, wild apples, blackberries 
and a few other foods were found with them, as well as plaited 
cloth, thus showing some degree of advance. Between the low 
brute savage of fifty or one hundred thousand years ago, and the 
lake dwellers of eight or ten thousand years ago, there are some 
remains that add a little to the meagre testimony at hand. The 
population was quite limited, for man is discovered by his works 
long after his bones have perished; and, had he lived in great 
numbers, it would not be difficult to trace that fact. All the evi- 
dence that bears upon the savages previous to the time of the lake 
dwellers, shows them to have been of the lowest order. While 
civilized man is now but six thousand years old, the savage man 
held sway for ninety thousand years. He must have become ex- 
tinct, for the lake dwellers were in no way related to him. Whether 
they disappeared or not, is not known, but their localities show 
later inhabitants, even down to the Eoman period. The probabili- 
ties are that the few scattered savages that preceded the lake dwell- 
ers were all extinct long before the latter appeared; and the latter 
passed away before the time when civilized man came on earth. 
It would seem that humanity, if we include all, has had three 



78 



IMMORTALITY 



distinct eras: first, all that portion of time that includes the brute 
savage, prior to the era of the lake dwellers; second, the period of 
barbarism, when the lake dwellers were on earth; third, the period 
of civilization, beginning about six or seven thousand years ago. 
The brute savage was man's only representative from ten to one 
hundred thousand years ago. The barbarians were the highest 
type from six to ten thousand years ago. 

Original human life includes only the barbarians and the 
brute savages. If they are the precursors of mankind, the species 
had a most inauspicious beginning. We do not belive it. By 
the law of diversity, which seems more reasonable than that of 
evolution, rude man might appear and disappear many times; and 
when the conditions were entirely favorable, civilized man would 
be ushered in. The brute savages of those thousands of years 
back are described as human beyond doubt; the same test being 
applied that is used to-day in showing that the vile savages of 
darkest heathendom are human; and that is all. It is not ad- 
mitted, nor even claimed, that any evidence of civilized man prior 
to six thousand years ago has been found or is procurable. The 
rude implement, the product of a childish mind, is the attendant 
testimony, and when some simple intelligence scratches a few wild 
lines on a rock, geology unearths it and proclaims it a bit of art, 
rough, low and crude. 

The conditions were primitive as compared with the 
earth of to-day, and the men were correspondingly deficient. They 
were lazy, in all probability; for they had nothing to do but dodge 
mastodons. What they ate, is a matter of conjecture, although the 
kitchen middens, or back-yard refuse heaps show that they were 
fond of clams and oysters, which they may have opened with their 
claws, and devoured without other preparation. The size of the 
heaps, now well preserved, indicates large dinners, to which whole 
tribes are supposed to have been invited annually. These fellows 
would look strange to-day, with their narrow, sunken foreheads, 
their crouching forms, bent knees, claw-like hands, and savage 
countenances. You would hardly like to meet one. ISTo more 
would you care to regard him as your ancestor. Because his anat- 
omy is human, it does not follow that he belongs to that highest 
type of creation. 



CHAPTER XII. 



FUNDED VITALITY. 



DE] 




IFE originates in a funded-vitality. 

This is the 613th Ralston Principle, and represents both 
1 a law and a fact. No subject has been of more importance 



to the chemist than the nature of the cell from which all 
life originates. That science has discovered the cell itself, is a 
matter of congratulation; and the attempt of chemistry to rebuild 
a separated cell is laudable, although always a failure. It was not 
until the great microscopes were invented that this tiny world was 
revealed to the eye of the investigator. Its nucleus was also dis- 
covered; but when it was found that there was a nucleus within a 
nucleus, and so on probably without limit, the heart of the scientist 
failed him. The little drop or mass of matter called the cell is' 
made of protoplasm, a combination of oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen 
and carbon; and this mass is fluid, being born in water, and having 
no limit to its extent. It is everywhere. You could not prevent 
its coming into active life in any part of the world where unchilled 
water meets the air. If the water you drink is boiled, the cell life 
dies; but as soon as the temperature is lowered, it is replaced by 
more of the same life. 

The air and water and earth are active to a degree that is 
hard to comprehend. Everywhere is protoplasm found. From 
the cell springs every kind of life. And as far as the structure of 
this minute drop is concerned, it seems to make no difference what 
duty is imposed upon it. If an elephant, or an insect is the task 
set before it, the cell proceeds to execute the command. It is not 
possible to distinguish the difference between this first life in the 
various uses to which it is put. The same cell drawn from the 
ground to build the rose would have entered into the thorn, the 
insect, the elephant, or the supposed climax of creation, man. 
That one life differs from another, is not due to the kind of cells, 
but to the manner in which they combine. This is determined 
by a certain impulse, called vitality. Could we have eyes of search- 

(79) 



80 



IMMORTALITY 



ing power sufficient to see the cell in all its attributes, we would 
find its elements present in the proportions needed to give it the 
quality for constructing life, and we would recognize an active 
impulse at work. What this impulse is, chemistry cannot tell us; 
for the chemists have put these elements together in their due 
proportions, thinking that their mutual affinities might start life 
into being, but they produced nothing but the elements. They 
were powerless to give impulse to this mass. 

Could our eyes look into the nucleus of the cell, they 
would see what probably looks like another cell, in which another 
nucleus is found; and this is all the satisfaction they would get for 
their curiosity. Still, it might be argued that there must be an 
end somewhere, although there is a limit, amounting to an im- 
penetrable barrier, preventing the human mind from ever ascertain- 
ing the fact of facts. It might be argued that, if there is a limit, 
a microscope some day will be made equal to the task of finding 
it; but there are microscopes to-day too large, too searching for 
practical use. An instrument of five hundred diameters is more 
effective than one of two thousand diameters; for, under the latter, 
the object becomes a blur, owing to the magnifying effect on the 
light. Thus God has denied us knowledge. He who can look 
across the gigantic expanse of space and count His suns by mil- 
lions, is yet able to discern the secrets imprisoned in the far away 
recesses of the id within the nucleus of the cell; while we, poor 
human gropers, can see neither the large nor the small, and all 
the time we wonder why the permission is withheld. 

Hemmed in on all sides by denials and mysteries, we turn 
to such evidence as is at hand. Some things are known as facts. 
It is apparently true that the cell is the beginning of life, and 
that the kind of life to be built depends upon the way in which 
the cells combine. These two facts are already ascertained. The 
third now confronts us: What directs the combination, or deter- 
mines the way that is to be pursued? "When the chemist in dis- 
may viewed his protoplasm, made by him according to the rule of 
nature, he could only say that the impulse of life was lacking; it 
needed vitality. But he found that he could not supply that 
vitality, nor were there any processes known to him whereb} 7 that 
impulse could be set to work. Yet, left to itself, the spark of life 
acted on its own choice, discarded his artificial protoplasm, sought 
some of its own, and proceeded happily on its way, with a simplicity 



FUNDED VITALITY 



81 



and directness of purpose that amazed him. He then made up his 
mind that there was a fund of vitality, omnipresent in the life of 
this planet, that supplied to the cell all the energy and all the 
intelligence that impelled it to its end. He saw in every step of 
growth, from the minutest to the grandest, the evidence of a potent 
intelligence, yet dependent upon fixed laws, and swayed by the 
drift of circumstances. 

It cannot be true that existence on earth has been left to 
take care of itself. A special supervision has been exercised over 
all forms of life from the very beginning. When species were 
useless, as in the case of the abundant trilobites, they were left to 
thrive and disappear, as though controlled only by the law of 
chance. So when thousands upon thousands of other species had 
run their day, and were no longer potent in the plan of creation, 
they became extinct, leaving their influences behind them in the 
forms of life that followed. Thus we see a triangular combination 
at work in the life of the earth: first, there is impulse; second, 
there is intelligence; third, there is the drift of circumstances. 
Were man the direct charge of care and intelligence, uninfluenced 
by conditions about him, he would be more of an infant than he 
is. Life, then, would be closer to the Creator, and all independence 
would cease. When he was cast upon this inhospitable planet, 
he was subject to his surroundings, and had little, if any control 
over them. Clothed with hair that grew on his own skin, covering, 
his forehead, face, neck and body, even his legs and feet, he had 
no need for clothing, save in the form of shelter. He did not 
bathe, for the conveniences were insufficient. ISTor do his more 
advanced descendants of warmer climes, with temptation and neces- 
sity about them, care for cleanliness; since filth and laziness are 
their chief virtues. 

Prehistoric man tore his food apart with great claws, 
provided by nature where now we have finger nails. His canine 
teeth were then great tusks, used in destroying life, as well as 
cutting flesh. If he caught a bird by strategy, his teeth were in- 
stantly plunged into its throat, the head severed, the wings and legs 
wrenched off, and the meal begun. His wife, a hairy and offensive 
savage, shared the repast with him, if, indeed, she was not the 
hunter and butcher that provided it. Their little ones lived by 
rough chance. Nurtured and nursed by the mother until weaning 
time came, they were then thrown upon roots, grasses, blackberries, 



82 



IMMORTALITY 



wild apples, raw meat, insects and dirt; a diet that to-day would 
quickly terminate the young existence. Xo question ever arose as to 
what food was best suited for their stomachs. They were fortunate 
if they got anything. Imagine the distress caused by those wild 
apples, and the struggles of their digestive organs to make way 
with a tough bird's wing from which the feathers had not been 
removed. The occupation of the family was to sit. Being lower 
down the scale than the Esquimaux of Xorth America, as we now 
see them, they could not have been as refined. These modern 
savages occupy a vastly elevated plane, compared with prehistoric 
man; yet we see nothing attractive in their idleness, filth and 
general worthlessness. What part they play in the plan of crea- 
tion is hard to tell. 

It took archaic man nearly one hundred thousand years 
to acquire a condition fit to live in. He first appeared in spots, 
here and there, over the globe; in America, Asia, Africa, Europe, 
and Australia; but he was worthless to himself and to nature. His 
coming and going served no purpose in creation. It was simply 
the vitality seeking to express itself as soon as the conditions were 
ripe, and this vitality was of the man-type, low and deficient, be- 
cause the conditions were mean and meagre. It is not possible to 
estimate the population of the earth at any time prior to the advent 
of civilized man. It is probable that the brute savage appeared 
in spots both in time and territory; here and there over the globe, 
whenever the time and the hospitality of nature permitted. It 
is in the order of things that he should appear in a thousand spots 
at one and the same time, or at widely different times, each without 
reference to the other. If any person supposes that every indi- 
vidual member of the human race, as now constituted on earth, is 
descended from a single progenitor, he may as well dispose of that 
assumption now as at any time; for he will sooner or later do so. 
if he reads and studies. There is no educated man or woman on 
earth who does not know to the contrary. If the question related 
to the origin of the white race, known as the Caucasians, it would 
be better answered: for there are some reasons in nature to believe 
that we are descended from a single individual. Instead of discard- 
ing the traditionary story of the Bible as a mere collection of ac- 
counts prevailing at the time it was written, as is taught in the 
theological schools and in universities of to-day, why not take a 
second look at that tradition, and compare it with the more recent 



FUNDED VITALITY 



83 



advances of geology and other sciences? The Bible uses the word 
man in a restricted sense. In that sense it could have had refer- 
ence to the only race that has been of any good to itself or to the 
world, the Caucasians. Assuming the Adam, in fact or in type, was 
the first of this great race, this only race, we might say, the Caucas- 
ians; we find that the Bible is true in fact or in figure, and either is 
sufficient when we consider the tropes and figures that teem in that 
great work as abundantly as fish fill an undisturbed sea; and we 
further find that the Bible confirms the undisputable facts of geol- 
ogy, when it says there were other lands and other peoples in the 
statement that Cain went into the land of X od and took to him- 
self a wife. In spite of this direct assertion, blazoned down the 
centuries, there have been scholars of more zeal than religion who 
have attempted to make the world believe that Adam was not only 
the father of his own race, but that he must father such anti- 
racials as the Turks, Mongols, Africans, Indians, Australians. 
Esquimaux, Savages, Brute-humans, Wild-men, and an endless 
horde of myriad thousands of tribes, widely different in structure, 
vastly apart in looks, and as variant in the human family as the 
rat is variant from the horse; all accomplished in six thousand 
years. The beasts of the field that were created for Adam, had an 
ancestry of fifty million years; and countless species had died and 
passed away forever, showing that, if a specific creation did occur, 
it had reference to the new man and the new conditions, while all 
the earth teemed with everything imaginable in the animal king- 
dom. The more closely we examine these facts, the more apparent 
it becomes that there is a funded vitality, which is used over and 
over again, and from which life springs at the will of the intelli- 
gence that pervades it. 

We cannot pass on until we fully acquaint ourselves with 
the nature of this vital fund, as far as the evidence is at hand. 
We obtain much help from the operations that are constantly going 
on under our eyes in this age. A whole forest is destroyed by 
fire, and nothing is left but the ashes that mark the quantity of 
earth or mineral in the composition of the wood. The trees con- 
sisted of leaves, twigs, branches, boughs, trunks and roots. The 
latter will return to mother nature more slowly than the parts that 
were above ground; but in time all will disappear as completely 
as though they had never existed. The tiniest leaf contains more 
cells than could ever be counted, and each cell represents its part 



84 



IMMORTALITY 



of the fund of vitality that made its existence possible. When this 
forest is gone, when its ashes have mingled once more with the 
soil, when its elements, that escaped in gases, have been re-resolved 
to solids, do yon imagine that each vital particle that gave its life 
to the cell it occupied has gone off to another world, by some pro- 
cess of graduation from this? Or, if you look at each tree as an 
existence of its own, in which cells are constantly living and dying, 
is it possible that the beautiful structure, laying down its material 
life, has collected its vitality and gone beyond the earth to a realm 
apart ? 

[ZMT] 

Nothing perishes. 

This is the 614th Ealston Principle. It represents a law and 
a fact, the most momentous in the history of creation. The using 
over and over again of all matter and all vitality is the best estab- 
lished process in the life of the earth. The old familiar example 
of the good maiden aunt, who was buried beneath the cherry tree, 
is no more illustrative of this law than any other act in all the 
long annals of the past. A farmer used the same principle when 
he made a graveyard of his orchard, as he had no other space at 
hand, and placed his relatives at the base of an old apple tree that, 
for lack of good soil, had not borne fruit for some years. The tree 
seemed to be revived; it came nicely into bearing, and improved 
from season to season. The apples were better than ever, and had a 
flavor that was well appreciated, though not understood. The 
family of this tiller of the soil actually ate the material of relatives, 
though only so much of it as had been taken up into the apples. 
Some entered into the construction of the tree, in wood, branches, 
bark and leaves, while more remained in the ground to pass into 
the general soil. 

There is nothing strange in all this. It occurs daily, and 
is the story of life. It might be called the economy of nature, 
but that this mistress of forces is more prodigal than economical. 
She uses the same material over again; nor does she hesitate to 
make as many repetitions of use as necessity commands or time 
permits. Her method is more logical than if the same material 
had been revived into another human being. This she prevents 
by establishing a fund of material to be used for many purposes. 
From this fund your body is built, and from the same fund all 
bodies are constructed, whether of the animal or vegetable king- 



FUNDED VITALITY 



85 



dom; whether of fish, or bird, animal, reptile, tree, flower or grass; 
all are the outcome of life living on the fund of matter. To make 
man, we need fourteen chemical elements; but there are sixty or 
seventy in the earth. To use them as elements would be a tire- 
some and fruitless task; so nature makes a general mix-up, and this 
she calls soil. But the fourteen elements cannot, or do not, appear 
in mere soil ready for human composition; so nature picks them 
out of the earth, and collects them in seventeen combinations, 
more nearly representing the needs of the body. The roots and 
their fibres are the pickers, and their duty is to extract from the 
soil the little particles of matter needed, to draw them up in the 
form of sap, for they will go in no other way, and to deposit them 
in leaves, buds and fruits, ready, when mature, for the stomach of 
man. In the stomach other fibres, known as the nerves of the 
lining of this organ, pick out what is needed to make blood, and 
the rest is discarded and thrown off as refuse. The blood then 
travels through the body, and deposits here and there the precious 
burden it carries, and thus builds up the system. 

Change is necessary to life, for the very act of living is a 
process of change. Death to the body is merely a more rapid form 
of the same change that is going on every minute of the day and 
night during life; and nothing that lives is exempt from this 
operation. Thus we are gaining and losing every hour. The 
same material that we throw off as refuse goes to make up the body 
of some other person, or the bodies of thousands; and the living 
flesh that wears away and is wasted into air and earth, passes from 
out our system, through the old and oft repeated changes, and re- 
appears in the bodies of kings, queens, slaves or animals; in Mary 
Jane of the kitchen, Sarah Ann of the dairy, Gertrude Hortense of 
the parlor, Victoria Eegia of the palace, or in myriad other forms 
of life. ^Ye are part of the same stock as the best and worst of 
earth. No better example of our importance or worthlessness can 
be obtained than by comparing all material to the common fund 
of soil that surrounds the globe; whether air, water or solids; for 
all these are interchangeable. Get the receipt for making man, 
as a baker gets his receipt for making bread, if you will, only go 
further and mix up a dough that shall contain the material neces- 
sary for the bread, as well as the trough in which it is made, the 
oven in which it is baked, the house in which it is kept, utensils by 
which it is handled, and many other details, and you have a com- 



86 



IMMORTALITY 



parative case. Man, in the earth, is a part of the common fund 
out of which he must come; and the clay for his brick, the stone 
for his walls, the wood for his house, the clothing for his body, 
the conveniences of life, the embellishments of beauty, and the 
sources of art, are one and all mixed in the general fund of dough 
out of which they too must be drawn by nature and her agents. 

That this material has been many times mixed is attested 
by geology. It has been solid rock, over which water has run 
and dissolved it to soil, and as soil, with or without the impress of 
animal and vegetable life, it has laid itself down in stratified beds 
to harden again into rock. There is no material so still to the 
eye, so adamantine to the touch, that is not active in these changes. 
Out of the melting granite may come the garden of a future age; 
from the garden, vegetation; from vegetation, man. It is the story 
of change; back and forth; rehabiliment; new life; old soil; rock; 
sand; loam, and the same old process repeated. There is not the 
slightest doubt that each particle of the body of any human being 
you may name or think of will reappear sooner or later in some 
animal or other human being. This is conceded by all who think 
and study. Such is the destiny of your body. TThat, you say, 
shall not this individual frame and its walls of flesh be mine in 
another world? No; that is absurd. iSTo sane man or woman 
pretends to believe such a doctrine. Do you realize that all you 
can call your own is shape, not substance? By daily additions the 
new substance coining from food is made to take the place of the 
old substance that is lost; but the new and the old are transitory. 
You have not one particle of the finger nails that you had three 
months ago. Your hair, beautiful as it is, or, perhaps, gray and 
fragile, is borrowed from the food you have eaten. Measure its 
length, and ascertain how much you have lost by cutting or falling 
out, and you will learn how rapidly your body is being changed. 
Even the bones that were yours three years ago have been thrown 
off in the form of waste matter, and new bones built; this is, if 
you are healthy; if not, the old hang on longer and invite disease 
such as rheumatism. The rule of good health is the active inter- 
change of particle with particle, until the whole material is re- 
newed in the shortest space of time possible. It is true that your 
body is apparently your own, and your shape and features so 
much your own as to be recognized as yourself; but this possession 
is one of form, never of substance; and you may learn in one of 



FUNDED VITALITY 



87 



our books that you have power over your growth sufficient to 
change both shape and features. We have seen a bad man grow 
good in a few years, and so alter in appearance that old friends 
did not recognize him. "We have seen a good man grow bad; and, 
when photographs, ten years apart, were exhibited side by side, 
they were declared to be of different persons. The tendency of 
new material is to rebuild old shapes, because their changes are 
too fine to become appreciable to the eye; yet this tendency has 
been overcome to a remarkable degree in many instances. 

Let us, therefore, lay aside all thought of a restoration of 
the body, unless it is to be done by a miracle, in which case the 
problem becomes too deep for our consideration. Taking evi- 
dences of nature as safe guides, assuming that her laws are to be, 
as ever, unchangeable; appreciating the logic of her work; imbuing 
our minds with the good sense that she displays at every hand, and 
viewing her masterpieces as types of creation strained out of one 
hundred million years of development, we, who are sprung from 
a race about six thousand years old, are not in a position to throw 
slops on this magnificent process by the spongy belief that our 
mud and clay, lost in countless other individuals, are to be given 
us again in both shape and substance. The raising of the dead 
is a miracle; but it is also a possibility, for the breath of life could 
be given back by Him who gave it. The stopping of the sun 
might be performed by holding the earth still, and setting it going 
again; for He who originated this movement might adjust it to 
new desires. These are possibilities. They who loudly cry that. 
God is omnipotent, and that with Him all things are possible, must, 
remember that impossibilities are never possible. Thus He could 
not have built two parallel ranges of mountains, a few miles apart, 
without a valley between, nor an island without water around it. 
Xo more can He or nature, by miracles, give to one hundred 
thousand individuals the same particles of body material that each 
had successively worn in turn; for the impossible is never possible 
even by miracles. We wear a coat to-day; it is cut up to-morrow 
into many pieces; each piece forms part of another coat, and our 
garment reappears in countless others; but we get another coat of 
similarly mixed composition, and it, in turn, is cut up; and so on, 
until, in this busy life, we have worn many composite coats, all of 
which have gone into others, in a hopeless mixture. It is plain, 
then, that it would be impossible to perform a miracle whereby the 



88 



IMMORTALITY 



body we lay down in death would be given back to us in another 
world. But the proper interpretation of the claim is that the same 
shape will be restored; if lame or defective, then sound and whole: 
all of which is foreign to our subject, even if it could be sustained. 

Our chief concern is in the fact that we are mixtures of 
millions of human beings that have preceded us. It is economy 
to use the same material over and over again; but it would be 
ridiculous to use it once, and then discard it forever. In this 
universe time counts as nothing; and countless ages would witness 
an accumulation of material more huge than the earth itself. All 
this could not be, and is not. Nothing perishes. Xothing is lost, 
Fire cannot destroy. Death cannot end anything, except mere 
shape and condition. In the operations of life, every departure 
from an equilibrium is met by a return; and thus the law of supply 
and escape is ever going on. If an army of soldiers go to their 
death upon a barren field, their bodies either reappear in verdure, 
or are caught up by the gases of the air, and transported to distant 
lands. The elements that entered into their composition are made 
free to serve a similar use in other places. They are not lost. As 
far as the destruction of death can go, it merely ends the machine; 
but it cannot cause a loss of the slightest particle of the material 
that entered into its construction. If you will imagine as compli- 
cated a machine as you please, with wheels, pulleys, cogs, axles, 
rods, and a hundred details, and further imagine that the maker 
and controller of that mass of parts permits it to run as an indi- 
vidual thing until he chooses to stop its motion, you will get a 
faint idea of human life in its material nature. You stand before 
this engine, and admire it, not as a collection of parts, of wheels and 
cogs, but as a thing of life. The man who holds the throttle of 
the locomotive and guides its action day by day, soon learns to 
love it; he feels a sympathy for its every mood, and can interpret 
its shortcomings as well as its excellent accomplishments. All 
engines have something of the human about them, as those who 
run them will cheerfully testify. Well, a time comes when the 
controller of destiny stops the complicated machine we have re- 
ferred to, and that before which we stood in admiration is brought 
to an end. Its parts are scattered over the ground, and you behold 
nothing now to remind you of the grand life that seemed to dwell 
therein. Yet, some time later, when memory recalls the triumph 
of the former machine, you are brought to ten others, and told 



FUNDED VITALITY 



89 



that they are made of the very parts which entered into the con- 
struction of one alone, though now reduced in size. They seem 
quite different. But what matters it, so that the old machine still 
lives? Yet, in some future attempt at restoration, when the ten 
have fallen apart and are no more, shall they and the original larger 
machine all exist at one and the same time? Let the process go 
a step beyond the ten. Let the material be melted and mixed, 
and then rebuilt into other machines, a half dozen or more, all 
different from either the first, or the ten that succeeded it; where 
does the question lead us? Let it go yet further; remelt again, 
and remix with other metals, and construct numberless machines, 
in each of which this original forms a part. Do you not see that 
the same material is being used again and again, without the loss 
of a single particle? Yet in human life the loss and gain, the 
change and interchange, are going on with comparative rapidity 
day by day; and death means no more than a sudden distribution 
of the very material that was sure to pass into other forms, whether 
the body lived or died. The individual ceases; but all its parts 
and qualities survive. Nothing perishes, and they cannot. 

A long glance backward over the expanse of fifty million 
years shows us the use of the same material in countless repeti- 
tions; and what seems strangest of all, is the fact that life was 
wasted in order to maintain this process. No greater lesson is 
found in all the studies of creation than that furnished by the 
rise and fall of the trilobites. They belonged to the animal king- 
dom, but served no purpose in it, yet came gradually into being- 
through a long period of development, flourished in the most pro- 
fuse abundance, outclassed in number and supremacy all species, 
and then died out; not a single specimen remaining to-day. Their 
history is plainly written in the fossils of the long period of their 
reign. So profligate was nature in their production that she must 
have used the same material over again a million or more times; 
yet all went into the common fund for every purpose of growth. 
There is not a man, woman or child living to-day in whose body 
there are not particles of the old trilobites of countless ages ago. 
Thus a dead species survives in its matter, although that matter 
had been employed in the animal and vegetable kingdoms long 
before the trilobites flourished. What the past has been is well 
known. It is an open book. AVhat the future may be, is a closed 
book, except in so far as the' past is the key that may unlock it. 



90 



IMMORTALITY 



As we approach the proof that is afforded us of our des- 
tiny, so far as it relates to matter, we should fix certain well estab- 
lished facts in our minds, in order that we may realize their value 
in this application. Let us attempt to grasp the greatest of all 
these facts, that nothing perishes, and note where it leads us. 
Then, in another application, we shall witness the effect of other 
series of facts stated in the earlier pages of this volume. Our 
present duty is to investigate the question of the immortality of 
matter. If life were merely material, we could . declare that its 
destiny is eternal in that it will always survive. Thus our bodies 
are immortal in this sense; but the conclusion is valueless and dis- 
heartening; for the very law that stamps eternity on the material 
of which we consist, decrees change, and therefore death. It is no 
solace to know that sooner or later some other individual will wear 
a part of our substance; that a savage Indian will be living on a 
portion of our carbon; a burly negro will get some of our oxygen; 
a heathen of China will wear our silicon in his hair; a Turk is to 
appropriate iron that now flows in our blood; a Laplander will pick 
up hydrogen that we are to discard; a cruel Spaniard will obtain 
some of our calcium; a dirty Portuguese will use our nitrogen; 
Esquimaux will get our phosphorus; Patagonians our sulphur, 
Peruvians our sodium, Mexicans our chlorine, Malays our fluorine, 
Japanese our potassium, and the wild men of Borneo will share 
with chimpanzees and gorillas the very particles of magnesium 
that we now hold as portions of the structure of this body. In 
such a sense, strictly material, we are immortal. In such a sense 
we shall live again, and many times again; but the prospect is not 
entrancing, nor clo we look forward to this kind of destiny with 
3-earnings of hope and pride. Something better must be in 
prospect. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



INTELLIGENCE OF MATTER. 



[_615_] 




'ITALITY is intelligent. 

This is the 615th Ralston Principle, and represents a law 
as well as a fact. 



As far as our present investigation has gone we find cer- 
tain things of intense interest as well as of tremendous importance 
attending our footsteps. The law that tells us matter is imperish- 
able is a well-known law, yet its bearing upon the question of 
immortality has not been sufficiently appreciated in the past. The 
fund of matter from which all existence comes, is the earth and its 
atmosphere. This is the limit; and from this fund nothing goes 
beyond the earth, while to this fund a constant supply of every- 
thing that pertains to existence is daily reaching us from the sun, 
as we have seen in earlier pages, and shall see further on in our 
investigations. 

It is a case of take and not give. The earth is undoubtedly 
receiving accretions from the source of its origin, the sun; but it 
holds to all it gets, and has never yet sent one particle of matter 
out into the cold space that surrounds it. What the sun has given 
in the past, is seen; that it has given new and progressive existence 
in each great epoch of geological history, is known; and what it has 
yet in store for us, as a planet, if not for us as individuals, may be 
surmised. The fact that there has been progress in the develop- 
ment of this globe as a living place for the animal and vegetable 
kingdoms, is not due merely to the earth itself, but to the constant 
supply of matter and vitality from the sun. It cannot be urged 
that the earth contained all the elements and conditions necessary 
to the life that has developed upon it, and that it needed but to 
be pushed out into space to grow and take care of itself. Had the 
sun been withdrawn, this orb would have rolled off to some remote 
corner of nothingness, and there floated like a resentful ghost in 
pitiful neglect. Nor can the proposition be maintained that the 
sun gives nothing but activity; for activity cannot be disassociated 

(91) 



&2 



IMMORTALITY 



from matter; and, if the least material of the theories of light is 
true, the sun's rays must consist of lines of ether, or thin air, 
stretching outward into space, and vibrated by the energy of the 
sun, in which case the rays would be constantly urged onward, 
and the air of ether would resolve itself into substance, never so 
fine but time would give it material accumulation. This is the 
least of those theories that seek to explain the nature of light, but 
the more reasonable views are those that describe a ray of sun- 
shine as an infinitesimally small line of matter agitated through 
space. Our belief is that such a line of matter is a succession of 
atoms from which all substance, all molecules, all cells, are formed. 
A single atom endowed with three laws, attraction, repulsion and 
rotation, would account for all chemical elements which are un- 
stable at their best, and all chemical elements do in fact account 
for all combinations of life in their myriad millions. At all 
events, there is no escape from the fact that the sun is the source 
of all that is material and vital in this world of ours. The record 
of the past is a written history; and, in each succeeding age, we see 
a new chapter opened, a new era established, a decided advance 
taken, a higher plane of progress achieved, and a messenger of new 
conditions always sent before the arrival of such conditions. As 
this method has so often repeated itself as to become a part of the 
constitution of planetary existence, we may expect its continuance 
in the future. ~No theory should be considered strong enough to 
override a well recognized fact; although many persons are of that 
temperament that prefers to believe much rather than know a little. 

Accepting the facts : that we are nourished by the sun, 
that if the sun were withdrawn we would perish in cold misery, 
that the earth has been built up by the sun, that we receive new 
material without losing any of the old, that the earth's development 
has been progressive, that this advance is still in progress, that 
previous tendencies have all reached toward man, that the bettering 
of life has occurred in decisive steps, and that the present con- 
dition of existence in which man plays the chief part is a clean 
leap out of the cloudy past; we are brought face to face with the 
question, if man is the best that nature can do in her efforts to 
reach the glorious goal toward which she is clearly tending. That 
problem is one of the massive doors that bar the passage to ultimate 
knowledge, and its solution will be the key that shall turn its own 
lock. Before that solution can be attempted, there are many 



INTELLIGENCE OF MATTER 



93 



things that must be understood, of which the most important at 
this stage are the facts touched upon in the preceding chapter. 

If the earth lives so much within its own limits that it 
parts with nothing, no matter what it does, or does not, receive, 
we must look to its operations for help as to the disposition of its 
material and life, not only now but hereafter. The moon is sup- 
posed by many scientists to be nothing but matter; a burnt out, 
calcined orb, although the reverse may be true, that it is a solid 
rock, yet to receive its future life. If no vegetation and no animal 
existence in fact are present on that satellite, it is, indeed, a mass 
of matter, inert, whose activity is suspended. The globe on which 
we dwell was probably at one time a bald rock, the surface of 
which now lies miles beneath the present geological era, tucked 
snugly away under the Archaean deposits. Allowing this to be 
the fact, and it is not material to the issue except as a means of 
illustration, we may contemplate it as a case of matter devoid of 
vitality; but such a condition is not conceivable since the last stages 
of that earliest era. For more than fifty million years there have 
dwelt upon the earth, inseparable one from the other, both vitality 
and matter. While it may seem disconnected at this place to 
advance another principle, it is necessary to do so in order to sus- 
tain logically the order of proof of the law that is stated at the 
opening of this chapter. 

[ ~6l6~ ] 

Vitality is always associated with matter. 

This is the 616th Ealston Principle, and represents a law and 
a fact. In the principle that precedes it, we find the law set forth 
that vitality is intelligent. We, as human beings, know of no in- 
telligence that is apart from matter; and, going a step further, 
we can safely say that we know of no intelligence that is not some 
form of vitality. These laws are soon seen to be co-related. As 
all matter is derived from activity and is a direct result thereof, it 
is not strange that we find the possibilities of activity locked up in 
the coldest and stillest of matter. Whether it is true that as much 
may be said of vitality, is doubtful. One side of the double prop- 
osition is known to be a fact; that there is no vitality that is not 
associated with matter; but the latter may not always be imme- 
diately associated with the former. 

Through long eras of the past there was an abundance 



94 



IMMORTALITY 



of matter spread over the entire globe, in which there was no 
vitality, using the term as meaning life in either the vegetable or 
animal kingdom. The earth then was as the moon is to-day, an 
apparently calcined orb. After a long lapse of time the next step 
was taken, and vitality associated itself with matter. It came from 
matter. Fire, light, heat are all material, for they could not other- 
wise have interpretation. It may be true that, when the earth 
was full rounded in the sky, the sun sent vitality in the form of 
associated matter. In any event, all the vitality we receive to-day 
has come from this source, and must always have so come in 
all the ages of the past. Activity is not necessarily vitality, 
though the latter expresses itself through the former. Its advent 
was the second step in the history of this planet, and a most re- 
markable advance it was; for what could be more surprising than 
that the absence of life should be superseded by life where no 
reason existed for the change? Who decreed this step? What 
does it serve the Creator that man should be born? Why should 
not the earth have been left to itself, like the moon, to float idly 
on in endless oblivion, and man have been omitted in the plan 
of creation? 

All creation may be divided into two classes : matter and 
vitality. We have shown that there is a fund of matter from 
which all things new are created out of all things old. This 
material, as has been frequently stated, is used over and over again; 
and, when the bodies of men, of animals, or of trees die or are 
destroyed, the material is released and goes back to the general 
fund from which it was drawn. Impelling this matter into its 
representations of life, is a fund of vitality from which the neces- 
sary energy is taken to express life. It may be asked how we 
know this to be true; but the same question may be asked with 
reference to the fund of matter. How do we know that, the flesh 
of the animal enters into air and soil to be used again? The 
answer is, that this fact has been well attested by experiment and 
investigation, and is never in dispute. Plant life feeds animal 
life, for the substance of the latter is well known to consist of cells 
organized in the vegetable kingdom, without which there can be no 
digestion, no blood, no body; and it is equally well known that 
animal life feeds vegetation and gives it its richest exuberance. We 
also know that air, gases, liquids and solids are continually inter- 
changing in order to convert dead material that once lived into fresh 



INTELLIGENCE OF MATTER 



95 



combinations of life. But when we say that there is a fund of 
vitality from which all energy, called life, is drawn, and to which 
it returns after its use is completed, to be again drawn by other 
existence, we are placed in a position where proof is necessary and, 
if forthcoming, is valuable. 

The first attempt at proof might be found in establishing 
a parallel case, which can be easily done; but it is not wholly satis- 
factory. If we know that matter comes from a general fund, enters 
into the uses of life, and, after death, goes back to that fund; and 
if we further know that vitality is always expressed in matter and 
therefore associated with it, we might conclude that it came also 
from a fund; but the cases are not alike at first glance. In the 
former instance, the fund is before us in the form of solids, liquids 
and gases, which we are able to seize and hold to analyze and 
scrutinize; and it is not difficult to trace the process of dissolution 
after death, whereby the old material is restored to the general 
fund. In the case of vitality, we can neither see it nor analyze it, 
except in limited ways; although the next steps in science will 
reach this conclusion. We know that vitality exists; we know 
how it operates, and we are able to direct its progress almost at 
will, although we can neither check nor suppress it, except as we 
check or suppress the combination in which it appears. We may 
kill the plant, but not the vitality that fed it; that goes beyond our 
control, and slips easily from our grasp; but we can certainly en- 
courage it to remain in the plant, and to produce a greater life 
thereby. It is a real thing, this vitality, for it responds at once to 
our efforts; it adds to itself by calling more like itself from the 
great supply, if we but aid it. Thus, the sickly child lacks vitality 
because it gets too little air, too little nourishment from its food, 
and too little energy from its habits; the tide of life ebbs, and 
will depart when we are least aware; but help comes from those 
who love it; pure air, nourishing food, invigorating exercise, in 
fact a condition of harmony with mother nature must be sought; 
soon the tide turns, more vitality is drawn from the fund, and its 
fullest share is given it, so it lives and thrives. 

m 

Vitality does not pass from earth to a realm beyond. 

This is the 617th Ealston Principle, and represents a fact 
rather than a law. It acquaints us with the condition in which we 



96 



IMMORTALITY 



live and die. The material of which, our bodies are composed is 
sent back to its fund, when life leaves it. It was this life which 
held it together. The man who dies of exhaustion following the 
amputation of his limbs, is simply unable to retain the vitality 
upon which an assault has been made by the shock; it leaves him; 
then the body dissolves, and its substance passes into the great fund 
from which it was originally drawn. Before us lies the body of a 
vigorous woman, large, full of perfection in material construction; 
yet the machinery has run down and stopped; a few minutes under 
water was sufficient to dethrone life from its seat, and, being dis- 
carded, it fled. Why should it not come back? Why should she 
not live? As a masterpiece of creation she takes rank with the 
best; every vein and artery teems with warm blood; every organ 
is well made; all the avenues of life are prepared for vigorous 
activity; yet one thing is lacking, vitality; it has gone. Where? 
To the skies beyond the earth? No, not by any means. It must 
do service again. But because it has gone, that magnificent being, 
that form of beauty and admiration, must dissolve. The blood will 
run cold and congeal into offensive coagulation, then break up into 
other combinations; the flesh will rot and its filthy odor will sicken 
all about; the shape and contour will shrink, and hollow bones, 
ere long, will tell where two eyes looked forth from a brain that 
thought, and realized the things of daily existence; all because 
the vitality has departed. 

A tree is a, thing of matter, but is a tree because it pos- 
sesses that energy which is called vitality; let this quality or essen- 
tial character leave it, and the tree passes back to the fund from 
which its material was drawn. A plant, a flower, a blade of grass 
retains its form and nature only so long as the vitality remains; 
withdraw this, and all else collapses. The huge elephant of to-day 
is the huge elephant only because its vitality is present; to-morrow 
we will extract that master-spirit, and the mass of flesh and gigantic 
bone will fall, waiting for the change that shall restore its elements 
to the great fund of nature. In some way or other, the animal has 
a life within its frame that departs and leaves the body to the 
mercy of decay, which is nothing more than change. That life is 
a collective whole, whether it belongs to a mouse or a mastodon. 
Does it depart from all the scenes of earth and wing its way across 
the pathless obscure to the fatherland of the universe? When a 
rat dies, no one supposes that its life survives as an entirety, and 



INTELLIGENCE OF MATTER 



97 



reappears either in this world or another. Such a claim is easily 
disproved, if one will go to the heart of nature. 

Think of the million forms of life that go down to death 
every minute, each giving up its energy. The substance of which 
the material part is composed, returns to the fund of matter; and 
the vitality that kept such substance in existence goes back to its 
fund. This life is in the earth and on it; is in the sea and above 
it. If all the animal matter that occupies the air, from the 
smallest insect visible to the naked eye to the huge bird that sails 
in majesty aloft, were to be heaped together in one pile, it would 
equal the entire range of the Eocky Mountains from stem to stem; 
and yet this mass is dependent upon countless energies all drawn 
from a fund of vitality that surrounds the earth. If all the animal 
matter that occupies the sea, from the visible amoebic jelly to the 
whale, were to be brought together in one heap, it would equal a 
solid passage from America to Europe, three thousand miles long, 
five hundred miles wide, and three miles deep on an average. Yet 
this mass is fed in energy by a force drawn from a general fund of 
vitality that is used over and over again. The soil teems with 
life, and on it man and the land animals dwell. In addition to 
these great evidences of existence, the world of vegetation is as 
numerous and as bulky. Were all forms of life to be suddenly 
extinguished, a whole continent of material and a tremendous fund 
of vitality would be liberated; and the effects of the change would 
overwhelm the globe itself. ISTature could not endure it. 

The death of an animal releases a collective vitality that 
has often been noticed by those present. In the establishments 
where cattle are killed for the market, many valuable observations 
are possible, and some are worthy of repetition here. If a sickly 
person stands near a slain steer of great vigor of life, a decided 
shock is felt and even maintained for some time. The feeling is 
described as a strong grasp of some other life upon that of the 
person at hand. In another line of experiment, it is always notice- 
able that, if one who has eaten nothing for eighteen hours or over, 
stands by a strong animal recently killed, a feeling of satisfaction 
supplants the hunger, even for an hour or more. A child was 
supposed to be dying from emaciation, and, on recommendation, 
was allowed to run about the butchering places. In a few weeks 
it was healthy and well. A woman suffering from loss of vitality 
following an operation, was carried to a shed where an ox was 



98 



IMMORTALITY 



slain, and revived to such a degree that she not only overcame the 
collapse, but started on the road to health; a turning point, as it 
were, in her life. Machinery of delicate construction has played 
an important part in detecting and measuring such vitality; and 
the future investigator must turn his attention to this line of study; 
but, best of all, is the well established fact that weak lives absorb, 
like sponges, the essence of vitality escaping at the death of the 
strong. The experiment is an easy one, and nothing stands in 
the way of everybody trying it. The rule seems to be that strength 
does not absorb from strength, nor weakness from weakness; but 
that weakness absorbs from strength. 

A whole book might be written on the subject of vitality 
escaping at the time of death. It is a matter that is attracting 
attention at the present time; and the clay is not far distant when 
accurate measurements of the energy that passes out will be made 
and recorded. There are instruments that do this now, but they 
are yet in the infancy of this line of invention. Even without 
their use it is an easy matter to obtain evidence of the escape of 
vitality. The greater achievement would be the discovery of the 
nature, character and shape of such vitality. By some it is claimed 
that it is in the nature of a spirit, even in the case of an animal; 
•not necessarily a ghost, nor a soul, but merely a collective energy 
having shape corresponding to the form from which it departs. 
As far as any positive evidence is concerned, the most that can be 
said is that, if there is a definite shape, it quickly extends to an 
irregular mass, and is lost by absorption or goes to join the fund 
irom which it came. 

Whatever it is, the fact remains that it departs from the 
hody in which it dwelt. The destiny of such vitality cannot be 
anything more than the opportunity to get back to its fountain, 
and flow out again in new forms. The horse is not immortal, 
although it is an intelligent animal and occupies a much higher 
moral plane than the average of humanity. It dies, and the 
substance of its body goes forth to the fund of matter, while its 
vitality joins the life fund that everywhere prevails. The dog 
does not live again in some realm beyond the earth. It separates, 
as does the horse, into the two divisions, and its identity is lost. 
In every instance the individual perishes, yet nothing is destroyed. 
Thus far, in our argument, we carry with us the agreement and 
confirmation of all scientists. They are of one mind in asserting 



INTELLIGENCE OE MATTER 



99 



that the material part of animal and vegetable life rejoins the 
general fund from which it came, and is used over again time 
without end, and they are likewise agreed that the vitality part 
goes back to its fund; but they are silent on the question where 
this latter fund is to be found. Is it in the entire universe, or in 
the solar system, or in the sun's activity, or in the air and substance 
of the earth itself? They are silent because the question has not 
been asked them. It is true that they admit that the sun is the 
source of all life, both active and dormant, as in the case of the 
coal beds buried beneath the surface of the earth, which contain 
the imprisoned life of the sun that shone millions of years ago. 
They tell us that the flames and heat and light given forth by the 
coal in our grates are the sun's rays that fed the growing forests 
that contributed their life to the comfort of future mankind. 

It is plain that matter is used over and over again ; and for 
the reason that it would be a wanton waste of nature to discard 
what is but once employed. In all the evidences of prodigality in 
other ways, we may observe a strict economy running through her 
processes, and if it should appear that so gross an exception occurs 
in the use of the fund of vitality as that a life energy once em- 
ployed is ever afterward abandoned, it would be too monstrous to 
be accepted. But, apart from theorizing, it is possible to trace 
this restoration from death to death of the vitality employed, and 
the result always shows that it joins the general fund. The supply 
is never exhausted, although varying in its force. When, in the 
old eras of geology, animal life was absent or in the minority, vege- 
tation was enormously productive. In places where the forests 
reigned supreme, and knew nothing of the great animals that since 
abounded there, the trees were giants, the spreading branches most 
expansive, and the leaves as large as table tops. Everything seemed 
to grow on a scale of grandeur, in which size played the chief role. 
It was an age of luxuriance, and has often been ascribed to the 
excessive energy of life prevailing at the time; but this claim will 
not bear investigation. It may always be found in prehistoric 
ages, as well as in the present era, that huge animals, when numer- 
ous, belong to a stunted vegetation; because the vitality is never 
sufficient to sustain both the animal and the vegetable kingdoms 
at the same time on a large scale. When the forests are extensive 
and gigantic, when the trunks of trees are of superample girth, and 
the height reaches into the hundreds of feet, then the large built 



100 



IMMORTALITY 



animals are few or lacking; but in such a period as the carbonif- 
erous, when the giants of flesh were present, the coal fields were 
made from bogs or low vegetation; but where the animals were 
small and few ; the coal beds were formed by forests of great size. 
The same is true to-day. Very large trees and extensive areas of 
heavy growth are less peopled by man or beast, while the sands of 
the tropics, the deserts of the world, in so far as they support life 
at all, favor the modern mastodons, as we may term them. Crowded 
China and Japan are given up to animal life at the expense of 
huge vegetation. The great buffalo roamed in swarms upon the 
grass-grown prairies, while the wolf divided its time between the 
open and wooded lands. The lion, tiger, hyena, boas and other 
specimens of larger life find the stunted jungles their proper home. 
So it is everywhere, and always has been; the fund of vitality that 
supplies both the animal and vegetable kingdoms, cannot support 
both at the same time on a grand scale. 

This fund is omnipresent. It is in the air near the earth, 
and is in and on the earth next to the air. On mountain sides it 
is weak, and a mile or two up it seems to diminish perceptibly. It 
favors warmth because warmth favors activity. Yet it is held in 
abeyance in cold climes, but ready to burst forth under stimula- 
tion. At Klondike, in the Alaskan vicinity, and through the 
north, where the summers are short, the pent-up energy of life 
manifests itself in myriads of pests; great insects in clouds bursting 
forth like so many hothouse mushrooms pinioned on wings. In 
the tropics the profuse luxuriance so much boasted of is always 
of inferior height and size of limb, but large in leaf, which appeals 
to the eye merely. The law of balance holds true there as well as 
here. 

Animals enough have died to build the crust of the earth 
many times. They used the vitality that was superabundant, and 
they used it over and over again. In no instance is it possible 
that the life of any one, large or small, ever left the earth. As it 
is certain that the fund of vitality has its base a short distance 
below the surface, and its upper line of limitation a mile or two 
above, with its greatest measure of intensity close to the surface, 
it must be equally clear that the departing life of the animal can- 
not go beyond. There can be no heaven for it within the globe, 
nor in the higher atmosphere above the globe; anc 1 it would be 
child's talk to speak of a realm somewhere in the icy skies, where 



INTELLIGENCE Oh MAT TER 



101 



animal souls or spirits go. Life on earth is shut in to the space 
of earth. There is no occasion for its flitting to the moon, the 
planets, or the stars, when its destiny is in process of development 
here. We must make up our minds to accept the great facts that 
confront us; and the two greatest at this juncture are: first, life 
is vitality controlling matter; second, death is a return of matter 
to its fund for new uses, and the return of vitality to its fund for 
like uses of its own. 

This vital fund is a vast sea that pervades all matter and 
mingles with it, wherever the conditions are such that life is 
possible. If a mouse is to be built, a sufficient quantity of material 
is extracted from the soil and air to furnish its substance; and at 
the same time a call is made for energy from the fund of vitality, 
to support its existence. And so all things that live in either the 
vegetable or animal kingdoms, are brought into being and sustained 
in nature. To this proposition there is no dispute, but there are 
claims that vitality is daily supplied from the sun. While our 
argument might safely admit such to be the fact, it yet appears that 
all evidences are against it. In other words, it is the same in effect 
as far as our present work is concerned, whether the fund of 
vitality is continually renewed from the sun or came originally 
from it, and is being added to, as well as sustained by constant 
activity; and yet, nnder the doctrine that nothing perishes, it would 
seem that vitality once created could not be lost. It must be ever 
remembered that the progressive ages of the earth have had their 
cause in a progressive unfolding of the sun's influence. That 
great king has given us more and better things as we have grown. 
We do not believe that all was entrusted to the earth when it first 
came into shape; for then there would be no further use for the 
sun, except to supply heat; and heat and matter alone cannot 
account for a single item in the inventory of creation. If they 
could, the chemist would be able to create man. 

It is a tremendous thought that tells us matter is being 
used again and again, from old lives through death to new lives; 
and it is a sublime thought that goes further, telling us that vitality 
is likewise a common fund from which every specimen of existence 
is drawn, whether of microscopic creation or the huge mammals 
of earth; and these two truths lead us to the gate of man's castle 
to see what relation he bears to the great energies of life. As we 
enter, we must take with us the law of the 615th Principle, which 



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IMMORTALITY 



states that vitality is intelligent; for that alone explains the 
phenomenon of existence. There is no evidence that a blind im- 
pulse is at work behind us. pushing forward to nothing; but, on 
the other hand, we shall be pleasantly surprised to see that a keen, 
ever watchful, unresting intelligence permeates all vitality and 
gives to matter its certain destiny. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



CAUSE OF MAN'S SUPREMACY. 



[ 6i8_] 




HE individual is a collective vitality. 

This is the 618th Ralston Principle, and conveys a fact 
rather than a law. It is of sufficient importance to lead 



us into a realm of the highest plane in the world of investi- 
gation; and, at the same time, it takes us far down into the depths 
of nature, where some of her secrets are securely kept, awaiting 
the coming of the scientists. He has much to do in the future, 
for the hest known of the treasures that lie at those depths are 
meagre acquaintances. It has heen learned, however, that all life 
originates in a vegetable cell. This, to the amateur, would seem 
like a contradiction. To start aright, take pencil and paper, and 
draw a circle, as large as you like, for size is unimportant. This 
may represent the cell, the beginning of the animal and vegetable 
kingdoms, although all cells are not exactly round, and all are 
not enclosed by coverings. The idea you will receive is true. 

This ceil is the equivalent of matter. To analyze it, we 
find the aid of chemistry sufficient as far as the substance is con- 
cerned, and the four vital elements are discovered: oxygen, hydro- 
gen, nitrogen and carbon. Here is the composition of life. It is 
wonderful, this cell of four chemical elements. We will try to 
make them live. We obtain quantities of such material, and mix 
them in the right proportions; but they go off to other uses, as 
though thoroughly disgusted with our encroachments on domains 
not our own. In the cell, about half way between its center and 
circumference limit, is a spot known as the nucleus, or nervous 
system of the mass, corresponding to the governing vitality of 
larger life. This defies all attempts at chemical analysis. Man be- 
holds its operations, but remains ignorant of its reality. It would 
seem now that the whole mystery was solvable; but, if this were 
true, there would be nothing to life but matter and vitality. 
Existence would be blind and aimless. Within the nucleus is an 
id, or inner life, which directs the energy of the whole cell by con- 

(103) 



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IMMORTALITY 



trolling the vitality that impels it onward to its purpose, which 
is reproduction. 

This cell eats and grows. It eats by absorbing more 
protoplasm like itself from nature, and this it draws from the fund 
of matter. If the elements are lacking it cannot grow; if present, 
it will get them. Soon the cell is large enough to divide and make 
two. These are each found to be fully equipped with nucleus and 
id, or vitality and intelligence. Thus we find that all life is three- 
fold; the trinity of nature is easily established: matter, vitality, 
intelligence. The matter makes the substance, the shape and 
form; vitality builds matter into the substance of form, and intel- 
ligence decrees the individual. It is safe to say that, at no time 
since the first drop of protoplasm had formed on the earth, when 
the igneous agencies had abated, has there been a cell, or specimen 
of life, however lowly, in which this trinity was not present. If 
you wish to get at the secret of existence, you must get a cell of 
material, charged with vitality, and controlled by intelligence. 
Such a cell is known to exist, and no other is discoverable. You 
may then ask, Whence comes this vitality, and where is the intelli- 
gence created? These questions may be worthy of discussion in 
later chapters. We know what the material is, for we can handle 
it, see it, and play with it. We are sure the vitality is a fund from 
which all demands are supplied, and we witness its many and varied 
operations. But what can be said of that splendid and marvelous 
intelligence that marshals its energies and directs them to con- 
struct such a piece of work as man? Our present duty calls ua 
to this field of investigation here and now. 

There are many ways of proving the existence and opera- 
tion of this third force in the trinity of nature — intelligence. No 
person can study botany without being impressed with the volumes 
of proof offered; and the same may be said of any one of many 
other works on creation. Look at the multitudinous varieties of 
insects, of birds, or water life; of animals, and of man; and think 
of the almost hopeless task of one who would class them all, or 
even count the different species. In this topsy-turvy of existence, 
an intelligent chain runs through each of the countless lines, and 
preserves the ancestral traits almost to a mathematical exactness. 
Just think of the duty of a single cell, for the giant elephant, like 
the tiny flea, is reproduced from a microscopic drop of matter. 
That enormous bulk of material in the river-horse will, in each 



CAUSE OF MAN'S SUPREMAC Y 



105 



generation, be succeeded by a similar bulk; but, in order to re- 
produce it, the thread of life must descend into the compass of a 
minute cell so small that only the large-eyed microscope can dis- 
cover it; and from this one cell, charged with the stupendous task 
of restoring all its ancestral history in a mountain of liesh, must 
spring the infant life of its kind, the embryo, the foetus, the in- 
dividual, the mature animal. Its protoplasm was the same as that 
of man, of the flower, of the insect; but, instead of making any 
of these, it constructed a hippopotamus. Why? Because in that 
originating cell, in its nucleus, was the id, the thought, the brain, 
the intelligence, the charged duty to reproduce a river-horse. 

If any person thinks that life is a haphazard mixture, 
because it is varied and endlessly complex, he may quickly change 
his mind by observing that change plays no part in its results. If 
the parent is a horse, the offspring is never a chestnut; if a bovine, 
never is the child a cowslip. A fish does not spring from an oak, 
nor a squirrel from a cat. So exact and careful is the guiding in- 
telligence in each specimen, that the influences of the father and 
mother, the inherited traits of grandparents, and great-grandpar- 
ents even, are preserved in combinations true to the weight of these 
influences. It is quite certain that such laws as are seen in these 
operations are not the result of accident, nor of mere drift. Evolu- 
tion undoubtedly plays its part, but it is not all. The mistake of 
the Darwinians is to suppose that, because there is evidence of 
evolution, it is the sole cause of progress and diversity. On the 
other hand, it is the agent of a greater power, and its operation is 
far less extensive than at first seems probable. The cause behind 
life must be as great as the product of that life. If man is the 
result merely of millions of years of development, the matter that 
first entered into the protozoa must have contained the soul of 
humanity; for a noble being cannot emerge from dull sea-shells. 
The purpose to create man was either present all along the line 
of geological history, or it has come at a later stage by reason of 
a further unfolding of the sun's life. If the former proposition is 
true, then man was a living intelligence in the nucleus of each 
cell of the "dawn animal," and all the crude shellfish of those dark 
eras; if the latter proposition is true, then the steps of advance 
achieved one by one, as the sun reels off its mission-purpose, have 
brought man into existence as a higher animal than his predeces- 
sors, in that period of time when the conditions had reached a 



106 



IMMORTALITY 



degree of fitness suited to his needs. As we have repeatedly said, 
we are satisfied that he has not been evolved from the lower forms 
of creation; although he has been born out of them; and yet we 
are satisfied that evolution in a limited form is one of the agents 
of creation. 

One of the deepest of all mysteries is the process 
whereby a single cell of microscopic smallness can, in itself alone, 
carry all the countless parts of a complex body, all the physical, 
nervous and mental characteristics, and all the moral tendencies 
of generations back in a compass so tiny that one drop of the 
blood that it creates would drown a thousand million of them. 
The id within the nucleus is undoubtedly the brain; but what 
more? If no other forms of creation had ever lived, we might 
reason with deepest sentiment, and say that this id, this brain of 
the nucleus that directs the protoplasm, is a miracle, so wonder- 
fully intelligent that it thinks out all that it has to do; it collects 
more protoplasm and converts it into cells like its own by the law 
of growth: to each of these it imparts its purpose to construct the 
brain, bones, nerves, blood, flesh, hair, skin, nails, lungs, heart, 
stomach, liver, kidneys, arms, legs, eyes, ears, nose, tongue, teeth, 
veins, arteries, cords, tendons, muscles, and all else, after a fixed 
pattern that must retain the characteristics of both parents, four 
grandparents, eight great-grandparents; and, gathering its forces 
by countless quintillions of other cells, it sends the story along; 
and, lo! this wonderful man is created! All this is probably true, 
but the mystery remains as to how the product could have been 
shut up in that one cell. It is very easy to say that a horse will 
breed a horse, a dog a dog, and so on, and many persons thought- 
lessly toss off the wise remark that a child will be like its parents. 
They see the babe at birth, and think that so much humanity ought 
most certainly to be born in perfect likeness to the mother that 
developed it; but they never stop to think that it had to come 
through that narrow pass in existence where it was an invisible 
drop, not so big as the one-thousandth part of the smallest point 
that the eye can detect; yet this invisible mass carried all that 
the after man develops. As it could not possibly carry it either 
in material or in mere vitality, it must have borne it in the intelli- 
gence committed to it. 

The Creator is present in every id in every nucleus of 
every cell that grows; and this we shall show most conclusively 



CAUSE OF MAN'S SUPREMACY 



107 



before these chapters are at an end. To the id that springs from 
the father a purpose is disclosed, and this is enough. To the id 
that springs from the mother, a purpose is disclosed, and this is 
enough. When one id absorbs the other, as it will do under the 
law of superior vigor, as stated in our work on Child-life, and the 
sex is thus determined, the two purposes are combined into one, 
and a single intelligence controls the mass, tiny though it be. 
This is told its destiny, it is made to know its ancestry. It thinks 
hard, and it thinks much. The head, containing the brain, is 
always the first to grow, and its size is far out of proportion to the 
rest of the embryo. How may it acquire knowledge of dead 
parents and ancestry? In the first place, its parents are living 
when it is created, and each is a reflex of those who have gone 
before; and in the second place, it remains true to its kind and to 
its kin. Some might reason that the specific life to be formed 
is attended every minute by a wise power that dictates all its 
growth, and thinks out all its details of development. This might 
do, if man alone were thus taken care of; but the human body is 
brought into being in exactly the same way, and subject to like 
vicissitudes, with all life, whether animal or vegetable; and to place 
guard and watch over each of the countless billions that are born 
every minute, would seem a wasteful loss of care, especially when 
to charge each cell with its certain duty would accomplish the 
same results that are witnessed. So much of life is cut off by 
hazard and accident, that the theory of momentary guardianship 
cannot hold good. The fact that each cell is in itself a brainy 
thing, a thinking, earnest life, is sufficient to account for the self- 
dependence that prevails in the growth of the individual. 

So clearly is this intelligence of the particle manifested, 
that it ought to convince every human being of the Supreme Power 
behind life. If all were left to drift, the keen mind of the vital 
cell would not cleave to its design so tenaciously, calling to itself 
more associates, second by second; sending them forth in all direc- 
tions to elaborate the details of construction, and entrusting each 
with the secret purpose of its own brain, until one and all, and 
others yet to come, are united in the combined effort to produce 
a complete individual, ready to take on the functions of life, free 
from accident or mishap, and stamped with the complex charac- 
teristics of a long ancestry. By the exercise of this increasing 
intelligence, the vitality of one cell has been united with the 



108 



IMMORTALITY 



vitality of another, and this union of separate energies has been 
going on until, as a whole, they represent the individual man. It 
is but a collective vitality. When the act of creation is completed, 
the united intelligence still remains, much of it in the brain 
proper, but yet scattered throughout the nervous system where it 
properly belongs, in the gray matter and ganglia. It is not diffi- 
cult to find traces of the early cell-intelligence, and the inheritance 
is stamped upon the two lesser brains in so marked a degree that 
the more we investigate it, the more we are amazed. There is in 
this body of ours a medulla oblongata, a little brain at the base of 
the skull and top of the spinal column, in which are held the reins 
of government. We may sleep ever so soundly with our cerebrum 
or brain proper; or we may rap it into unconsciousness, until the 
thinking man is as dead; but this little mind looks after every- 
thing. It is its care that keeps the heart beating, the diaphragm 
rising and falling, or swelling and contracting, the lungs opening 
and closing in sympathy; the blood flowing, and all life employed 
to sustain its master; and this takes place in the lower channels of 
existence, where thinking brains are unknown. Even the second 
brain, or cerebellum, is automatic and devoid of consciousness. 
Thus coming down the line of growth from the cell to man, we 
find that the intelligence of the former, guiding the collected vitali- 
ties, has been preserved in larger form, while all the united energies 
have produced the individual. 

[3lO 

Man is the associate of animal and vegetable creation, 

This is the 619th Ralston Principle, and represents a fact 
and a condition as well. It is easily proved. Every part of the 
human body is composed of cells, and of nothing else; and every 
cell is vegetable. There is no animal life in this form. Even the 
bacteria that bring on disease and destroy the body, are mostly of 
the vegetable kingdom. More than this, all animal life has its 
origin in some form of vegetation; and without this, it could not 
exist. The same cell that makes the tree would make the man, if 
directed by the impulse to do so. The same protoplasm serves one 
as well as the other. 

Long ages before the "dawn animal" was created, the 
earth was a vast garden of plants, although flowerless and fruitless. 



CAUSE OF MAN'S SUPREMACY 



109 



Out of the product of that growth came the conditions that made 
the earliest animal life possible. In all the after periods of prog- 
ress the development of vegetation has preceded the development 
of animal life, and the latter has fed upon the former either 
directly or indirectly. If evolution is true, then the human species 
is descended from the plant, for a close resemblance is seen at a 
glance, and the relationship has been intimate from the beginning. 
In man, as in animals generally, the blood circulates, carrying par- 
ticles of matter to build the flesh, bone, skin and muscles. In the 
tree, as in all vegetation, the sap circulates, carrying particles of 
matter to build the wood, limbs, bark and leaves. In man, as in 
animals generally, fibres of* nerves in the stomach extract food 
from the supply at hand, and send it into the blood to be circulated. 
In the tree, as in all vegetation, fibres of nerves at the roots extract 
food from the soil at hand, and send it into the sap to be circulated. 
In man, as in animals generally, a tree-shaped mass of foliage called 
the lungs, breathes air into the system. In the tree, as in all vege- 
tation, masses of leaves breathe air into the system. Indeed, the 
resemblance of the lungs to a full foliaged tree is most striking; 
but the resemblance in the respiration of each is a matter of 
astonishment, the more it is examined and understood. 

Man came up out of the vegetable kingdom, whether by 
evolution or mere succession. It has given him origin; it has 
made his existence possible; it now feeds him. He could not live on 
flesh, if that flesh were not fed directly on vegetation. Were he 
to eat meat that fed on meat, he would die in a short time; nor 
can any animals support life on meat-fed flesh. The lion likes the 
lamb, but the tiger does not like the lion, as a diet. "Under the 
microscope, plant and flesh life look alike in their cell formation. 
Their close relationship is noticeable all through their develop- 
ment and growth; and at death they are interchangeable, and re- 
turn by like processes to the common fund of matter, to be again 
drawn forth by either one or the other as the assignment may 
direct. 

That man is part of the animal kingdom is undisputed ; 
that the animal kingdom is the direct product of vegetation is 
universally admitted, and that they come from and return to a 
general fund of matter is equally clear. All these things being 
true, it must follow that the vitality that feeds the one also feeds 
the other; that is, all life of fish, flesh, fowl, and plant is drawn 



110 



IMMORTALITY 



from one general and prevailing fund of vitality, and to this fund 
it returns after the death of each individual. So much is prac- 
tically admitted by investigators. The final step in this series of 
propositions is the placing of man. It is urged that he is apart 
from all creation by reason of his intelligence; but we find that 
animals have intelligence, merely in lesser degree, and that every, 
leaf, branch and blade of the vegetable kingdom is the product of 
the mind that dwells equally strong in their cell structure as in 
that of man. A question of degree determines rank, not origin, 
nature or relationship. Every individual is but a collective vitality; 
and this applies to the tree as well as to man. Behind this col- 
lective life is a united intelligence born of each cell employed in 
the structure, and held together by the community of purpose. 

The story is the same on every hand. The tiny shrub 
whose stems, leaves and flowers all work together to produce the 
individual, is exactly the same life as man, with chasms of separa- 
tion in rank, but a complete union in all other respects. Brothers 
in protoplasmic origin, boon companions in the bed of life, fed by 
the same material, nurtured by like processes, and fellow occupants 
of the same grave, they are locked, heart and soul, mind and body, 
in one common weal. It is not possible to write the history of 
one, and omit the history of the other. There is no theory of crea- 
tion that does not make man an offshoot of the vegetable world. 
His blood is composed of nothing but vegetable cells. His vitality 
is supplied by the combined activity of vegetable vitalities. As a 
unit of thought he is merely a larger collection of mind than the 
species below him in the scale of intelligence; yet his mind is the 
id of his nervous system, which is the nucleus of his body; or, at 
least, these are representations of the departments of original life. 

Mind is a part of matter, though only by the rule of 
association, and it does not appear that the real intelligence of 
substantial forces is ever manifested except through protoplasm. 
The chemical elements possess qualities, affinities and definite pur- 
poses, but always as though they obeyed blind laws. Yet these 
laws could not come from nothing, for they show the creative 
genius of a master mind. Take, for example, the four elements 
that enter into the composition of protoplasm; oxygen is a decided 
agent and discoverable in its many operations. It is incapable of 
suppression. Hydrogen is entirely apart, in its existence, from 
all other elements, and, combined with its more active sister, oxy- 



CAUSE OF MAN'S SUPREMACY 



111 



gen, is responsible for water which abounds everywhere; as nitrogen 
is responsible for the atrrfosphere that surrounds the globe. The 
fourth is carbon, the element that produces heat, or chemical rest- 
lessness, whereby all processes must keep moving on; it is the 
material that feeds the appetite of oxygen. These are elements 
merely; yet note their earnest devotion to the laws with which 
they are endowed! 

We cannot accord them mind in the sense that proto- 
plasm possesses mind. In the case of the chemical elements, as 
separate matter, or in compound forms, we see the endowment of 
faculties which are to them as everlasting rules bestowed by a 
superior being, which cannot possibly be thought of as a force, 
Elements, therefore, are the agents of God. They are material 
merely, and we propose to call their properties activity, and not 
vitality. The latter term we apply only to life, in either the animal 
or vegetable world; which activity includes both chemical action 
and vital action. Life is ever at work; while chemical activity 
rests, awaking only to seek an affinity or to repel an improper 
alliance. It belongs to the fund of matter, coming and going, 
as called or sent; while the activity behind protoplasm is a fund, of 
its own. As we have said before, it might seem that the two funds, 
those of matter and vitality, would suffice to maintain creation; 
but, from the first examination down through a long line of studies, 
it is clearly apparent that there is a third fund directing the vitality 
that makes use of matter, and this is verified by every act of life 
that is known. Thus we have the trinity of nature: the material 
with which every life-structure is built; the energy which builds the 
structure, and the mind which tells what structure is to be built, 
and superintends its construction. In the cell all these depart- 
ments are seen; the protoplasm is the material; the nucleus its 
vitality, and the id its mind. 

[J 20 "] 

Mind originates in a funded intelligence. 

This is the 620th Ealston Principle, and represents both a 
law and a fact. In the trinity of nature we have three great funds, 
matter, activity and intelligence. In the case of the first we in- 
clude all the elements of chemistry, that is, all the substance of the 
earth. In the case of the second, we include all the energy that 
turns into life four of these elments, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen 



112 



IMMORTALITY 



and carbon, and uses ten others for completing the human struc- 
ture: calcium, phosphorus, sulphur, sodium, chlorine, fluorine, iron, 
potassium, magnesium and silicon. Beyond these fourteen are 
many others that are undoubtedly intended for man's use and 
happiness. But vitality is a builder of the body, and goes no 
further. The third fund is that of intelligence. In this chapter 
we can say but little in proof of its existence, and will take the 
opportunity to meet the claim that intelligence in protoplasm in- 
cludes also vitality, and that therefore the fund of intelligence 
should be twofold. This claim is answered by the very nature of 
the id, which is a thing apart from the nucleus of the cell, as the 
nucleus is apart from the protoplasm. It is also well established 
that the cell-trinity permeates all combined life from protozoa to 
man; a trinity that rules the mechanical, mental and spiritual 
world. Nowhere are the three parts separated, and nowhere sep- 
arable. The locomotive, as a thing of matter, cannot run on its 
course, nor even move, until a vitality enters into it; nor can this 
vitality direct its movements until a mind takes control of its 
energy. The metal is the material, the steam is the vitality, the 
engineer the intelligence; or, by comparison, the metal is the proto- 
plasm, the steam the nucleus, the engineer the id. 

This trinity of nature is everywhere visible. Not one 
instance in all the universe can be mentioned where an exception 
can be found. Every government has its mass of material, the 
nation; its vitality, the administrative force; its intelligence, the 
ruler; and this is true whether it is controlled by the people or by 
an autocrat. There is no exception in States, cities, towns, school 
boards, societies or other organizations. It is true in the church; 
its body of membership is the material; its life is the vitality, and 
the purpose of its existence, as manifested and interpreted by the 
governing head, is its mind. The plant grows on the same prin- 
ciple. Every machine is so operated. Take away the mind, and 
the purpose is lost in mere action, which sooner or later spends 
itself. The hurt bird, deprived of its conscious intelligence, flies 
wildly on, actuated by its vitality alone, and plunges against the 
rock of death. A government that is deprived of an intelligent 
helmsman, is like a ship at sea, steaming ahead as long as its 
vitality endures, but maintaining no definite course, and finally 
surrendering to the caprice of the waves. Vegetation, in its won- 
derful variety of forms, is a clear expression of mind in matter; 



CAUSE OF MAN'S SUPREMACY 



113 



and were this to be withdrawn, nothing but chaos would follow. 
Nor could vitality be taken away, and life survive. The engineer 
cannot run his engine by his mental force. The brain of the uni- 
verse would be powerless to control or direct matter without that 
executive power which is furnished by the fund of vitality. God 
does not act by thinking. He executes His orders. To Him matter 
is a constructive fund, and His purposes are the intelligent agents 
of destiny; but there must come between the two a power to per- 
form, and this power is the fund of vitality. It may be said that, 
if He is all-powerful, it will be simply a word, a command, and 
all will be done. Such an assertion is nonsense. However limited 
our conceptions of Deity may be, we are not made so stupid as to 
believe that omnipotence means the ability to perform an impos- 
sibility. Between every cause and effect there is an agent. Between 
mind and matter there is an executing go-between called vitality. 
Between the decision of the engineer to go to a certain place with 
his machine, and the going to that place, there is the energy neces- 
sary to get there. Between the decree of the will formulated in 
the brain of man to strike a blow, and the striking of that blow, 
there must be the vitality necessary to lift the arm and plunge it 
forward. Between the mission of the flower as thought out in 
advance by the forces of nature, and the growing, budding, blossom- 
ing and full bloom reign of that type of the hereafter, there must 
be a connecting energy to execute the work in every step of its 
development. 

The fund of intelligence is a department of its own, and 
finds its expression in methods peculiar to itself. It gives as much 
as is required. Where it exists is an inquiry of no small moment. 
We know where the fund of matter is to be found, for it is at our 
feet; but, some years ago, it was not known that the gases of the 
air entered into combinations that became solids. We now learn 
that there are light and heavy gases; that out of the supposed 
atmosphere the elements necessary to build fibre and flesh may be 
obtained to a considerable extent. So this fund of material is 
present in solids and liquids that we can see, and in gases that are 
invisible, and some of which are inappreciable. Thus it is easy 
to locate the domain of the fund of matter. But what about the 
second department? Where is the great sea of vitality? If we 
appeal to chemistry, we are told that it cannot be analyzed; but 
chemistry tells us that we cannot analyze electricity, odors, ozma- 



114 



IMMORTALIT Y 



zome, the pul-glow recently discovered by Roentgen, although I 
described in our book of Higher Magnetism long before, and many ; 
other things. Even ozone was not known some few years ago; but 
its presence was realized. Nothing, except vitality and electricity, 
so puzzles the chemist as the fragrance of a flower, the perfume 
of musk, or the intense odor of verdigris. It is not vapor, for 
vapor can be caught. It is not a gas; for, if it were, escape from 
analysis would be impossible. Of course it is not of a material 
nature, but rather represents activity, and plays upon ether, or 
the inner atmosphere. But, finer than all this, is the impulse 
which pervades protoplasm and keeps it ever at work building up 
life. As it is not found outside the cell, or first form of life, we 
might seek to asume that there is its home, in the nucleus of each 
drop of vegetation. 

This assumption is quickly overthrown by the fact 
that, as matter cannot create matter, so vitality cannot create 
vitality. All the processes of growth confirm this fact. When the 
cell grows larger, and divides into two cells, and thus reproduces 
its kind, its larger mass of matter is not created, but is drawn to 
itself by the simplest form of digestion, absorption. It must have 
the matter at hand to absorb, or it perishes; but, as nothing is lost, 
its own substance is sent back into the fund of matter, and this 
would leave its vitality to die if there were no fund of vitality to 
rejoin; and also its intelligence would die, if there were no fund of 
intelligence to rejoin. It is true and well proved that cells are 
destroyed in countless millions in each human body every minute' 
and it must be true that, as the material that is disintegrated does 
not meet annihilation, so the other two parts of the trinity, vitality 
•and intelligence, are not annihilated. This being true, they must 
find some place in which to remain until they are again called 
into life-growth, just as the wasted flesh lingers waiting in the 
soil, till such time as other forms of existence require its substance 
in new constructions. Another proof of a fund of vitality, as well 
as a fund of intelligence, is seen in the building up of cell-growth. 
The matter is at hand, for it comes from the fund of material; and 
we can trace its decrease as the growth goes on. Each new cell is 
endowed with a nucleus and an id, or with vitality and mind. As 
it cannot create something out of nothing, and as its own remains 
after others are added, it must obtain a supply from a source other 
than its own. But there is no nucleus, nor id, in the matter it 



CAUSE OF MAN'S SUPREMACY 



115 



uses for increase until such matter has undergone the influence of 
the creative act. Its vitality, therefore, is given it by the parent 
cell, which, not having it itself, must have obtained it from a fund, 
perhaps some will say from a source of supply; but that is the same 
thing. We do not claim that any fund is a separate sea; nor nec- 
essarily any sea at all. It may, like matter, dwell indiscriminately 
here, there and everywhere. It is present; it abounds; it fills the 
place assigned it in nature; and it is biding the time when the 
destiny of earth and of planetary creation shall be unfolded 
through its instrumentality. 

This fund of intelligence is nature. That is the whole 
story told in a few words. Some cry out that nature is nothing but 
impulse, and to this we agree, if it is added that such impulse is 
directed by thought, plan, design, and not accident; in which case/ 
then, nature would include both intelligence and vitality; or the 
two funds would constitute the great mother of us all, we being the 
material product of their power. The further claim is made that 
man is a superior species, endowed with a brain, a mind and a 
soul; and that the highest of the animals possesses no more than a 
brain and a superior brute intelligence. It must be remembered 
that claims of this kind are instigated by conceit, and colored by a 
feeling of importance that tends to exaggerate the facts. It is 
admitted by all investigators that man's body, brain and all, is 
but the collection of vegetable cells, and it is further admitted that 
the difference between the size of man and the size of correspond- 
ing vegetation is due to the fact that the latter does not throw off 
its refuse, while the former does. It is often asked why a tree 
does not show a greater proportionate brain than a human being. 
The answer is, that vegetation has no collective brain, but has a 
collective intelligence in its growing parts, while the wood and 
texture are deposited refuse, which an animal would throw off, 
after reserving such parts as are needed for bones and muscles; and 
even these are subject to slower change. If man had no excretions, 
he would of necessity be as huge as a tree. Some animals have 
large carcases because their excretions are small; but their brains 
are diminutive, and this determines the rank of their intelligence. 
In many cases the excretions are not protoplasmic, but woody, 
showing bulk but not loss of flesh-making material. 

Mind is present in all vegetation, if we understand it to be 
instinctive intelligence. In the animal kingdom we find a brain, 



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IMMORTALITY 



or something corresponding thereto; and it must not be overlooked 
that plant life is stationary and requires no engineer to drive its 
muscles, for it possesses none. In proportion as the life created 
is designed to move about, to participate in the activities of living, 
and to run the gamut of earthly opportunities, in the same propor- 
tion will competency be required in the engineer, and consequently 
will the brain appear and be made larger. The tree grows by its 
instinctive intelligence, and the same thing occurs in lower animal 
life in the collection of its general cells, their nuclei and ids; but 
there are gradations steadily coming up the scale until mind is 
suggested in the ganglia, or nerve cells, and their system. The 
next step is found in the possession of a brain at the end of the 
spinal column, which controls all the functions of the body, yet 
can neither act nor reason. The oyster and the clam need neither 
a nervous system nor a brain. As there is nothing in the vegetable 
kingdom that does not exist by correspondence in the body of man, 
so we find in our species this third or perfunctory brain. Then 
there is the higher step in the animal world, where muscular activ- 
ity is required, and the second brain, or cerebellum, appears. 
This, also, is found in man; and, while its work is mechanical, it 
catches its early duties from the medulla, and its mature offices 
from the first brain or cerebrum. Man has all that exists in the 
vegetable kingdom, all that exists in non-movable animal life, all 
that exists in the lowest form of movable creation, all that exists 
in perfunctory life, all that exists in muscular species, and all that 
exists in thinking beings. He is but the concentrated accumula- 
tion of the types that have gone before him, extending from one 
end of the scale to the other. 

Man's supremacy is not so great as we would think ; and 
it is merely a question of brain development. The tree, the fruit, 
the grain, the seed, are all in line with the physical tendencies of 
nature to produce brain matter. Throughout the vegetable crea- 
tion we see the efforts constantly made to deposit organized phos- 
phorus, which alone is capable of building the substance of the 
animal brain, which feeds on phosphates and cannot exist without 
them. More than this, they must have been organized in some 
vegetation. When the stalk of corn deposits its grain in the ear, 
it concentrates, by extraction from the body general, all the 
phosphates at its command. Analysis finds this deposit in each 
grain. From it animal life gets its gray matter, its nerve substance, 



CAUSE OF MAN'S SUPREMAC Y 



117 



its ganglia, its brain, its mind. The last act of ripening of any 
plant, of any tree, of the berry, the grape, the apple, the wheat, 
the oat, the flower, consists of summoning from the structure its 
phosphorus and depositing it in the seed. So true is this, that 
floriculturists take advantage of the fact by pinching off flowers 
before they mature their seeds, to keep the plants still in bloom. 
A familiar example is in the case of geraniums which will diminish 
their blossoming if all their phosphorus is wasted in flowers that, 
after withering, go to seed; but let these be taken off before the 
seeds ripen, and the phosphatic matter will be held back, and the 
vitality it commanded will turn to making other flowers. "Were 
the tree an active, moving organism, it would concentrate the phos- 
phorus in the form of a brain, instead of using it for the brains of 
others; or, to reverse the proposition, if the tree should take up 
the habit of concentrating its phosphorus, instead of using it in 
seeds, it would soon become an active organism, crawling, and 
perhaps walking. It may be amusing to contemplate an oak, re- 
versing its position, trunk up and leaves down, trying to walk on its 
limbs; but if you will look at the anatomy of the lungs, you will 
find a perfect tree in shape, appearance and functions; the trachea 
the trunk, the bronchial arms the limbs, their divided extensions 
the branches, their fine tubes the twigs, and their expanding foliage 
of cells the leaves, all breathing just as the tree breathes. It may 
be possible that, from the taking up of the habit of holding back 
its phosphorus, some species of the vegetable kingdom might 
change to animals. The relationship is close enough to permit 
it; but the fact probably is that all forms of creation are associated 
together rather than lineally descended from each other. At all 
events, it is true that the brain of man is made up of the phos- 
phorus deposited in seeds by vegetation; and this is true whether 
man feeds on flesh or not; for he can take no flesh that has fed on 
flesh. His meat diet is but one remove from the vegetable world. 
If there were no seeds deposited, there would be no phosphates, 
consequently no brains, and consequently no mind. 

The mental rank of any animal is due to the quantity or 
to the quality of the brain deposits. In the line of species con- 
nected with the human race, quantity alone is the determining 
rule. Thus the status of prehistoric man, and his place in the 
ascent from apes is solely ascertained by the height or depression 
of the bony structure of the skull over the cerebrum. If you wish 



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IMMORTALITY 



to get an idea of the value of this rule, take pencil and paper; draw 
a line six inches long, and regard this as the base of the upper 
half or dome of the skull, passing from the eyebrows, across the 
top of the ear, where it joins the scalp, straight back to the rear: 
make a dome arching over to the top, four inches high, with full 
rounded projections at the back and front, and regard this as the 
skull of the lowest order of the human race of to-day, the Papuans 
or inhabitants of Xew Guinea; next under this arch draw another 
that shrinks at back and front, and is only three and one-fourth 
inches high, to represent the man of Spy, or one of two skulls, 
recently found in Belgium; a fraction of an inch under this draw 
another arch to represent the skull of the Xeanderthal man; and 
at a height of two and three-quarters inches draw a low arch. The 
last is the head of the chimpanzee, or ape. Somewhat higher than 
this is the skull of a supposed man-ape found in Java in 1895 by 
Du Bois. The gradation is quite steady from the finest heads of 
Caucasians down through the specimens of the inferior races to 
the Papuan; then comes a decided fall to the most advanced of 
the prehistoric types; and again a fall from the lowest of these to 
the highest of the apes. The chasms are so wide apart that it 
is not possible, even in the theory of the most promising of Dar- 
winians, that prehistoric man is descended from the apes; it is 
still less possible that the human race of to-day is descended from 
prehistoric man; and it is the height of the absurd to assume that 
the Caucasians, or whites, are descended either from the negroes 
or from a parent stock of the same origin. How much and how 
little of mind a species or an individual may possess, is dependent 
upon the quantity of gray matter (vegetable phosphorus) that has 
been deposited in the form of a brain; or upon its quality. 

When the brain is small or deficient the rank of the species 
in the scale of intelligence is low, and all its life is correspondingly 
debased. Man's prominence is due to the relative size and quality 
of his brain substance, but he has little to boast of by reason of 
this endowment. If one quart of beans will make a dog, two quarts 
a horse, three quarts a gorilla, and four quarts a man, where does 
his godlike supremacy come in? The dog has three brains, so have 
many other animals; indeed, it is an exception if any brute has 
not a medulla, a cerebellum and a cerebrum. In active, muscular 
animals the cerebellum, or physical brain, far outranks man's; 
while man's cerebrum, or thinking brain, outranks the brute's. 



CAUSE OF MAN'S SUPREMAC V 



119 



Still the horse, the bear, cat, fox, lion, tiger, and others innumer- 
able, have a cerebrum, cerebellum and medulla, or three brains 
the same as man possesses. There is but one brainless vertebrate 
in all the animal kingdom, the amphloxus. The uses and habits 
of life always determine the size of this organ. Thus, apes that 
climb and jump about have larger brains than less active animals; 
but this increase of size is in the cerebellum, whereas the seat of 
supremacy is in the cerebrum. If man were the only species that 
possessed a cerebrum, or thinking brain, we might accord him 
his godlike claims; but he holds in larger degree .only what other 
animals have as well as he. How, then, is he so far above the rest 
of creation? It is simply a case of four quarts of beans being more | 
than three quarts, with an occasional improvement in the quality. ' 



CHAPTEE XV. 



THE GOAL OF CREATION. 



[_62I_] 

THE earth's progress has appeared in decisive steps. 
This is the 621st Ralston Principle. It recounts a fact 
in geological history. As much of the ground has been 
covered in previous chapters, it is not necessary to repeat 
the incidents that show this to be true. A glance merely, will be 
sufficient. In the first place, we will assume, for convenience only, 
that the Archaean deposits began one hundred million years ago. 
The time may have been shorter, and is as likely to have been 
longer; so we place this as the probable, or at least as the con- 
venient, average. It has no bearing upon the conclusion. At 
that time the first period of geology began, and the rocks were 
laid upon a foundation of which we know nothing; so it is of no 
use to assume what it was. 

Through that long first period the evidences are perfectly 
clear and conclusive beyond all question that nothing but rock, 
barren, empty rock was being accumulated, until, toward the close 
of the era, after vegetation, fruitless and flowerless, had appeared, 
there came on earth the precursor, the forerunner, the herald of 
the life that was to abound in the next age. Not until this van- 
guard had given promise of the wealth that was to follow, did this 
Archaean era come to a close. Before it opened, the sun, then 
shining as a white orb, fresh from the hand of God, had sent its 
outer shell, a composite rock-material, forth into space, to be 
whipped back by the law of attraction into planets and asteroids. 
Fifty million years it took this outer shell to unroll and reel off 
its matter. Then the sun, fulfilling its destiny, began to throw its 
second coat out into space. Protoplasm and vitality supplanted, 
followed and supplemented matter and activity. 

[ 622 ] 

Every advance in the earth's progress has been an- 
ticipated through a forerunner. 

(120) 



THE GOAL OF CREATION 



121 



This is the 622d Kalston Principle. It represents a law as 
well as a fact. The herald of the Huronian period was the stray 
plant life that appeared near the close of the Laurentian era; both 
these ages constituting the Archaean deposits. Through the 
Huronian the anticipated vegetation alone occupied the earth; but 
near its close came the "dawn animal/' the first of the rhizopods, 
as the forerunner of the shell-life that was to follow. Then time 
went on; and this primitive form of animal creation suddenly- 
changed; and, in the close of the Silurian era, the fishes of the 
oceans were heralded by the first of the vertebrates; but not enough 
to establish a fauna. When, however, the Devonian period fol- 
lowed, all varieties of water vertebrates appeared, as though by 
special creation. Even then man was in the mind of nature, for 
every step tended his way. 

Life was in the water in all that era. It was necessary 
to establish land existence; and this was done by the double animal, 
the amphibian, designed for two lives, in the water and on the 
soil. A long lapse of time now passed, during which the life on 
the planet consisted of vegetation, fishes and amphibians. Sud- 
denly the first land animal appeared in the form of a reptile; then 
the era closed. The long carboniferous age was brought to an 
end. Naturally, if we placed confidence in the forerunner, we 
would expect to find the land teeming with reptiles, and in this 
we are not mistaken. They appear in all varieties and sizes, and 
hold sway from sea to sea. Then the birds are announced, and 
come forth to occupy the air. Thus far the order of succession 
seems to be: plants, sea-bed rhizopods or shells, fishes, amphibians, 
or land-and-water reptile-fishes, land vertebrates in the form of 
reptiles, birds sprung from reptiles, or reptile-birds. The order 
of occupancy seems to be : first, the water beds, or in the muddy 
shores; second, the water; third, the land; fourth, the air. The 
next step brought quadrupeds that walked upon their feet, instead 
. of dragging themselves along, and animal life made an advance 
toward the erect carriage. 

All was now ready for man. except the conditions favor- 
able to his gentle nature. The wheat germ had been made to 
grow in the exact requirements of his body; and blackberries were 
abundant, thus assuring him of the two most valuable of foods, 
then and ever since. The intense heat of the sun had been 
tempered through one hundred millions of years of shining, and it 



122 



IMMORTALITY 



was no longer a new orb freshly made, but a yellow star, seriously 
faded as compared with its early brilliancy. It had reached that 
stage in the reduction of its power where its vertical rays would 
not kill man, and yet its mildness would not leave him to freeze 
in the winter seasons. Food was at hand on every side: birds, 
fish, berries, grain, and animals. All was ready. But, following 
the plan from the beginning, a forerunner was necessary. He 
came, and disappeared. The conditions were favorable, but not 
fully ripe. Eras were not now marked by millions of years, but 
by thousands; and a few thousand years elapsed before prehistoric 
man again thrust his head up out of the misty past, only to have 
it again lopped off. Still the elements were rough. He could 
not endure the vicissitudes. Great birds threatened him from 
above; huge fish sought his body for meat; savage animals screeched 
from the forest, or roared out of the jungle, whichever way he 
turned; there were no conveniences at hand for shelter, clothing, 
cooking, or eating. He died; and time again took its flight of a 
few thousand years. The heralds had appeared; twice they gave 
promise of the animal who was to walk erect on two legs, to think 
with a superior brain, and utilize the forces of nature for his own 
benefits. 

When man came he did not crawl up from a long succes- 
sion of graded ancestry. We challenge any scientist to show this 
by any evidence, or by the remotest or most far-fetched inference. 
He came as the first plants came, suddenly; as the fishes came; as 
the amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals and all the others came. 
He burst upon the earth! And he came some ten or more thou- 
sand years ago, as we find him in anti-racial countries; but as the 
white man, the Caucasian, the chosen race, he came, as the Bible 
tells us, some six or seven thousand years ago. Of all the species 
of created life that ever dwelt upon this planet, man is so con- 
stituted that he must leave behind him a far greater volume of 
evidence than any other of his kingdom. It is said of him by . 
geologists that he cannot possible dwell upon the globe without 
establishing his presence on every hand. Yet it is the fact that 
there is not one particle of evidence of the residence of the present 
race of mankind on the earth prior to six or seven thousand years 
ago; even the anti-racials are known not to have been here more 
than ten or twelve thousand years; and the brute-savage not over 
one hundred thousand years. That is all. 



THE GOAL OF CREATION 



123 



With two billion people alive five thousand years ago, as 
the evidence seems to indicate; had they come up out of countless 
ages, there would have been a thousand million people here fifty 
thousand years ago, struggling with the elements, cruelly left to 
fight the foes that were ready at every hand to assail their lives; 
yet two or three skulls of doubtful age and uncertain species are 
all that can be found. This evidence will not do to sustain the 
theory of evolution. It is, however, true that, close to the time 
of man's sudden occupancy of the earth, there were lesser types of 
the human race present, especially in caves and in floating houses; 
but this was all within ten or twelve thousand years, a mere baga- 
telle of time. It remains the fact that the human race is of recent 
origin, and very recent at that. It has come upon the earth, like 
all its predecessors, suddenly and abundantly. 

A noteworthy fact in all these progressive steps is that the 
crust of the earth has been different in each succeeding era. Thus 
the plants of the Huronian period found soil quite unlike that 
which covered the globe during the Laurentian age. This is 
clearly shown in the change of rock formation. Then the reptiles 
found distinct changes; the mammals, birds, quadrupeds, and all 
were privileged to witness new carpetings in their several epochs. 
No fact in all geology is more interesting than this. What we 
see to-day as the crust of the earth, was never seen in any preced- 
ing era. More than this, it is rapidly changing under the influence 
of man, of white man, for no other race is producing any effect 
whatever in this direction. The flora is rapidly undergoing a 
revolution, and many varieties are becoming extinct, owing to the 
aggressive spirit of man's occupancy; the fauna are likewise being 
changed, and important types annihilated; and, strangest of all, an 
entire race, a mighty race, one of the greatest of earthly races, the 
Indian, is being wiped off the face of the globe. Think of the 
red man, his importance, his eloquence, his grandeur, his lofty 
and sublime spirit, being sent out of life, as though his coming 
into it was a mistake. When the last of his kindred shall have 
kissed the dust, well may the future Caucasian ask why he was 
created. 

Eras shorten as time nears its destined goal. What was 
fifty million years in the Archaean, became twenty-five million in 
the Palaeozoic; less in the Mesozoic, still less in the Cenozoic, and 
the Quarternary includes its events in thousands rather than in 



124 



IMMORTALITY 



millions. Geologically speaking, Ave now live in the Psychozoic 
age, commencing three or four thousand years before Christ. If 
another era should follow this, the forerunner would need herald 
it but a few centuries; for time is crowded now, the sun has burned 
to a yellow, and the climax is either reached or will appear in the 
next change. This brings us face to face with the most awful 
problem in planetary history: Is man the goal of creation? If 
he is, then the logic of nature must hasten the crowning event, 
whatever that may be. If he is not, then another epoch, and a 
better type of life will surely appear. 

There is no escape from the double proposition just pre- 
sented. There have been successive steps of advance for all these 
ages; and thus far all life has reached upward toward man. This 
is certain. We can see the purpose to create him, clear back in 
the first vertebrate, the original water organism; and we can wit- 
ness the finger of fate pointing out of the murky past toward that 
one goal, man; but there is not a bit of evidence that he is the 
intended end, the final goal, the climax of nature. If he is, we must 
find it out; but where shall we turn to seek such evidence? To 
him? That is dangerous, for he is governed in his judgment by 
his conceit and hopes. If he were left to decide the matter on 
his belief, or faith even, he would flatter himself that nature, and 
nature's God, could do nothing better than this, taking it at its 
best, and blushingly hiding its worst. Was it for this race, this 
conglomeration of humanity, that those deep laid foundations of 
solid rock were first sunken in the bowels of old earth, that they 
might sustain the fabric of a world destined to travel in a blaze 
of glory through the sky? Was it for this race, this mixed vermin 
and noble manhood, that the sun was sent out of the courts of 
Heaven, cutting its burning path across the icy seas of space until 
it reached its intended domain, and there set up the great system 
that must culminate in the ripening of one of its satellites for the 
satisfaction of its Maker? Was it for this race, this composition 
of cowards and semi-heroes, that the elements of chemistry were 
created, sorted, given laws, and set in motion, in order that they 
might build that splendid fund of matter from which so much 
wonderful life should emerge? Was it for this race, this grovelling 
mesh of filthy habits and feeble attempts at purity, that the flora 
and fauna of earth were established, the plants made to bear fruits, 
grains and flowers; the fish to sustain life; the animals to serve man, 



THE GOAL OF CREATION 



125 



and the fields, sea and sky to smile in rapt beauty in token of the 
spirit of Heaven that prompted all existence? 

The creation of the solar system ; of the great sun whose 
energies have been taxed these millions of years in order that they 
might shed life and warmth; of the moon, that it might cheer the 
midnight journeys of the earth; of this orb on which we dwell, 
with its thousand duties lending their united effort toward some 
achievement; of the crust that has yielded up a steady succession 
of existence, from the lowest and crudest to an extreme that might 
be expected to be its opposite, as white is the opposite of black; — is 
all this creation an experiment with an admitted failure at its 
end? Is man the best that nature can do? Is man the best that 
God can do? No doubt, at one time, the "dawn animal" thought 
that the climax had been reached, if it could think at all; and 
matter does think; when it discovered nothing better. ~No doubt, the 
fish really believed that he, in all his physical perfection, a really 
wonderful thing, was the end of all design, for he saw nothing su- 
perior to himself. ~No doubt the amphibian, in his turn, the reptile, 
the mammal, the bird, and even the chimpanzee, each the suc- 
cessive monarch of an age in which nothing superior appeared, 
believed that the reason of existence has been reached and ex- 
plained in their individual cases. That poor Neanderthal man, 
endowed with intelligence far above the noblest apes, looked out 
across the expanse of earth and sea, saw nothing superior to him- 
self, saw nothing even half as good; then he pounded himself upon 
the chest, and cried, "I am the great final object of all creation. 
How do I know it? I am wonderfully endowed. Look at my 
hands and feet, with hooked claws and hairy nails; look at my 
arms and legs; see me walk and manipulate myself, as no other 
living being is able to do; I can cut, wood with sharp stones that 
the highest monkey does not know enough to make; I can build a 
little, for see what a nice cave I have hollowed out; and you know 
the apes are too inferior in the scale of creation to provide such 
splendid means of shelter; but, above all, I have a mind; my cere- 
brum is twice as large as the most intelligent of animal's; I can 
think; reason, yes; I plan my journeys, count the revolutions of 
night and day, think of results, carry trains of thought, ponder on 
the vain things of this world, and show, in every way. a wonderful 
leap in the intelligence of created life. This splendid mind can- 
not be for naught. I sit at night by the edge of the sea, and 



126 



IMMORTALITY 



watch that beautiful moon sailing across the sky in a train of 
fleecy clouds, and then I realize that I have a soul, for I wish to 
live forever. My great reasoning faculties come into play at such 
time and tell me that the whole universe was made in order that 
I might be born, might die, and go to my reward somewhere beyond 
the clouds. I know that I am that being for which all else was 
made; and my superior mental intelligence now clinches this fact 
by showing me two things: first, the immense leap in the develop- 
ment of mind since the chimpanzee was created; second, the culmi- 
nation of existence, for I head the list. Nothing is my superior. 
If nothing on earth excels me, then it is sure that I will never be 
excelled." — And thereupon this poor Neanderthal brute-savage 
proceeded to scratch his ribs with his hairy claws, and lay himself 
down in the mud over the decayed carcases of flesh life he had torn 
apart with his tusks, and fall asleep in the society of his vigorous 
snores. From this sleep he has recently wakened to give evidence 
of his rank in the scale of life; but some wild beasts ate his flesh, 
and long since it mingled with the dust of earth, his vitality re- 
turned to its fund, and his intelligence, great as it was, went to 
join the sea of thought that envelops the planet. We have mod- 
ernized his language and his vocabulary, for two reasons; first, 
we do not know what terms he employed as channels for his 
thoughts, if indeed he employed words at all; and, second, we 
wish to show how perfectly his imperfect logic fits the reasoning 
mind of man in this psychozoic age. 

Not one argument, nor one idea, can be advanced in favor 
of present man, that could not have been used by the prehistoric 
specimen; or that we cannot use in his behalf. Yet if he had 
twice the mind of the highest ape, we have fully twice the mind 
that he had. If from the ape to prehistoric man, there is a 
leap of one hundred per cent, advance; and, if from the pre- 
historic man to ourselves there was another leap of one hundred 
per cent, of advance, there certainly is time enough before the 
sun fades away, as it seems now to be doing, for at least one more 
leap of one hundred per cent, advance. But you may rest assured 
that this advance will not take place unless there is room for it. 
If man is perfection, he is the climax. If he is the best that God 
and nature can do, then there is nothing to argue further; this 
race now on earth is the goal, and it shall inherit the kingdom to 
purchase which such a wealth of expenditure has been lavished. 



THE GOAL OF CREATION 



127 



It must not be forgotten that the goal set was an ideal 
one; and that the Creator who set it was omnipotent. He had the 
power to execute the wishes of His heart. With a perfect goal, 
and the ability to reach it, there is no excuse for any shortcoming. 
We speak of humanity as being imperfect; but, if that is due to 
lack of completeness, then it establishes the proof of future com- 
pletion. In the study of life everywhere, from the least to the 
greatest, we can find no evidence of imperfection; except, as in 
the case of man, it is due to incompleteness. On the other hand, 
there is an ever accumulating abundance of proof that the state 
of incompleteness is drawing to a close, from the crude life of the 
distant past to the admirable types of the present age; imperfect, 
to be sure, if we regard them as the finality, but wonderfully per- 
fect as steps in the line of progress. It is our duty to analyze man, 
and discover what place he occupies in this attempt to reach the 
goal. Every thoughtful person admits that God is omnipotent, 
and that the climax to be reached must be perfection; at the same 
time it is stated as an excuse that perfection is not reached in this 
world, but in the next. That line of reasoning would wreck every 
train and sink every ship on this planet; but we will accept it as 
something to be answered, absurd though it is on its face, and 
ridiculous in the light of all the evidence thrust before us. So 
important is it, since it has become the foundation of certain creeds, 
that we shall devote the next chapter to the consideration of this 
fallacy. 

Is there a God? This question is answered " yes " by the 
theologian, for that is his profession; it is answered "yes" by the 
devotee of religion, for that is his avocation; it is answered "yes" 
by astronomy, chemistry, geology and every science that has come 
to enlighten men's minds since minds first sought for exact knowl- 
edge; it is answered "yes" by the plan of life, the steps of progress, 
and the steady trend of nature toward some ideal end; it is 
answered "yes" by the thousand evidences of special design of 
which we shall speak fully in this volume; it is answered "yes" at 
every turn, by every voice, in every breath, through every expres- 
sion of living, and at every act of death, in sentiment and in fact; 
in doctrine and in matter; in faith and in realism; it is ever and 
again answered "yes;" and that response is stamped as indellibly 
upon the face of the universe as the sun's glare is rivetted upon 
the sky. It is answered "no" by one class only; a once small, but 



128 



IMMORTALITY 



now rapidly growing class, who find the Bible, not as it was written, 
but as men have collected its parts together, to be unreliable, not 
as a whole, but in fragments of its testimony. 

It is this defect that is making infidels and atheists ; and 
the greater harm is being done by the universities and theological 
seminaries, by their efforts to parade the defects without an attempt 
to go back of the Bible for the most positive proofs of the existence 
of God. This growing tide of atheism will soon overwhelm the 
churches, unless the remedy is applied. It must be remembered 
that because the historical statements in the Bible are confirmed 
by discoveries of recent years, the authenticity of that book is not 
necessarily involved. As far as it recounts the occurrences of 
history, its statements are shown to be correct; and this leads many 
to believe that it is therefore an inspired work. Such a conclusion 
is clearly illogical. It may be quite accurate in all its contempo- 
raneous accounts, and yet not be inspired. On the other hand, 
because there are traditions in the work, and these traditions are 
found to be the best that honest men could produce, but no more, 
many persons, who ascertain their inaccuracies, are led to discard 
the whole Bible as erroneous. This is wrong; yet this fallacy is 
making a hundred thousand infidels a year, who exclaim that there 
is no God, because the work ascribed to Him is defective. The 
Christian commits a grievous sin, and helps to make the infidel, 
when he says the whole Bible is inspired. He makes a claim that 
he cannot prove, nor can he tell how he came to know or believe 
that the whole Bible was inspired. In no book of that sublime 
work is the Bible mentioned; not a line, nor a word refers to it; 
and in the days of the patriarchs and prophets there was no Bible. 
It has been a collection of scraps taken here and there from various 
sources for centuries; some parts being accepted, some rejected, 
and others disputed. Even the portions that were accepted have 
appeared in many editions, all different, with additions and altera- 
tions; so that the Old Testament of to-day is but one of many ver- 
sions of a disputed and patchwork literature. Yet some person 
claims that the book, which is but a library of scattered writings, 
is the Word of God. It would be a difficult matter to tell who 
first made this claim. God never said it was His word. No writer 
and no minister of His ever said it was His word. The authorship 
of that assumption is hard to find out. 

You cannot long crowd down the hungry throat of intel- 



THE GOAL OF CREATION 



129 



ligence a piece of mental indigestion so monstrous and so absurd 
as the claim that the Old Testament, from first to last, is the in- 
spired Word of God. To force this upon one's belief is to turn 
every sensible person toward atheism. The clergy who preach 
from that book do not believe it to be altogether inspired. We 
have probed the minds of the ablest ministers of the age, and we 
have yet to find a single educated clergyman who believes it. The 
theological schools specify the errors and defects of the book, and 
ascribe them not to the fault of inspiration, but to the fact that the 
collaters of the old writings have added much that should not be 
admitted in the work. This is right. When there are thirty 
versions of one book, each as good as the other, and no two alike, 
how is any man to choose the only one that is inspired, and reject 
the twenty-nine that are spurious? Such a task confronted the 
Bible editors from the start. Our rule has been submitted to five 
thousand of the most sincere and most respected clergymen of this 
country, and they have concurred in it. It is this: All portions of 
the Bible that teach morality and religion are inspired; all portions 
that repeat traditions and history are purely secular. God, in 
the first place, never intended to reveal to us the origin of the 
earth, nor the origin of man. The account in Genesis is too gen- 
eral and too indefinite to answer as information; for it tells nothing. 
We cannot ascertain when, where, or how the race originated; 
everything that is pertinent is generalized. The claim that Adam 
was the first human being, and that Cain went to another country 
and found a wife, is childishly weak. The story of the tree, of the 
serpent, of the temptation and fall, is a poem that reflects the 
Traditions of the age in which it was written; but, as pretended fact, 
is so far an insult to the power of the Creator as to charge Him 
with making a perfect pair so imperfect and wishy-washy that they 
fell at the first step in life; fell not only from Paradise, but from 
the courts of Heaven into eternal misery; all because an apple was 
tasted. In other words, God spent one hundred million years in 
splendid preparation, bringing creation up through a magnificent 
array of species in the vegetable and animal kingdoms, until man, 
the ideal of His heart, was reached, and then everything collapsed 
because this man ate from an apple given him by his wife, who 
got it innocently from a strange being. Nothing can be more 
flimsy than this. Let us give God the credit of being able to 
accomplish what He has undertaken. And, then, when the earth 



130 



IMMORTALITY 



was thickly populated, God is represented as having repented of 
His folly in creating the human race; and a flood came and de- 
stroyed all but one family; a statement that is flatly contradicted 
by overwhelming evidence piled mountains high. All the earth 
nas been under water at times, but never since the Caucasians came 
upon it. Traditions of a flood are found in many countries, and 
the proof is produced in the form of shells and sea-remains on the 
sides of hills and mountains; but this proof is demolished by the 
geology of each of such countries, which shows clearly that what is 
now hill or mountain was once the shore of some ocean. Yet the 
people are not to be blamed for starting the story of a flood, as 
they really believed that the waters actually inundated the moun- 
tainous regions, instead of the latter having been depressed. 

We make these remarks to sustain and defend the Bible 
by separating its doctrines of morality and religion from its tradi- 
tions and history. To this recourse all true followers of God must 
come sooner or later; it is a question of time. For our part, we 
are not willing to charge God with stupidity and gross inefficiency 
by repeating the traditions set forth in Genesis. As soon as the 
separation is made, there will be no fuel left to feed the fires of 
atheism. Imagine a sensible man, one who is endowed by his 
Creator with a fine shaped head, a large brain, and an earnest heart, 
sitting on a hard settee in Sunday-school facing a thin-faced, shal- 
low pated teacher who proceeds to tell him that in order to be 
saved from eternal destruction he must believe that all the races 
of humanity were drowned, excepting Noah and his relations, 
through whom, in a space of five hundred years, all the races re- 
appeared, including the Indian, negro, Mongolian, Malayan and 
wild Bornean; that Jonah was swallowed by a whale and remained 
within it alive for three days and. three nights; that three men 
were thrown into a furnace hot enough to melt solid rock, yet 
came out unharmed; that the sun stopped in its journey around 
the globe and actually stood still long enough to permit an army 
of Jews to wound, maim, torture and kill others of their own 
brotherhood, and so on in a similar strain. How long do you think 
it would take to convert the sensible man to a belief in the Bible 
or in God? The church needs more such men in its membership; 
but they are sadly lacking; and, beneath this load of ridiculous 
improbabilities, the noblest edifice of all creation is slowly crum- 
bling to the ground. 



THE GOAL OF CREATION 



131 



We believe in the God of the Bible, and in the churches 
established through the instrumentality of that grandest of all 
books; and we will permit no person to shake our faith in either, 
by attempting to prove the truth of the traditions therein related. 
In other words, we are convinced of the reality of God, irrespective 
cf the early chapters of Genesis. Taken as it is, with its fables, 
poems, figures, traditions, histories, moral codes and sublime teach- 
ings, the Bible is the noblest literature of earth; it is peerless 
amid its solitary grandeur; and, when the loftiest mental achieve- 
ments of human genius shall have paled in the long flights of time, 
that majestic work will yet live, undimmed in lustre, and unscarred 
in fame. Let us take it as it is; a work full of humanity reaching 
God-ward; not a book printed in Heaven and consequently unfit 
for earth. If all sincere lovers of God will do this, the church will 
.acquire a new strength, and the hosts of sin will go down more 
easily before the banner of righteousness flung upon the breeze of 
■common sense. In the hope that the mountainous errors of the 
present and past may be lessened at once, and eventually eradicated, 
the plan of church perfection is set forth in the final chapters of 
this volume. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



02s E STEP MOEE. 



[ 623 ] 




AN is not the goal of earthly creation. 

This is the 623d Ralston Principle. It, unfortunately, 
states a fact ; but also discloses a purpose in nature to 



proceed further. Before an attempt is made to array 
against this principle the usual doctrines that teach otherwise, let 
us examine all those elements of testimony that present facts. To 
do this, it will be necessary to proceed along two lines of inquiry; 
and this chapter will be devoted to the first. 

That the earth is progressive is admitted by every man 
and woman, every schoolboy even, who has given the slightest 
attention to its study. There are some persons who do not know 
that this planet is round. To them we would not look for informa- 
tion, for they have never acquainted themselves with the subject, 
on either side of the question. A clergyman in St. Louis some 
years ago preached and taught that the sun actually traveled 
around the earth, making a circuit of six hundred million miles 
in a single day of twenty-four hours: and his followers, who did 
not know otherwise, believed him. You can tell anything you 
please to unread persons, and they will believe all you say if they 
are unfamiliar with the matters of which you speak. This is the 
law of education, and to its influences in the last few thousand years 
are due the prevailing mistakes on the subject of immortality. As 
an illustration of this, take one only of the great blunders that 
have been made, that relating to the relative position of the earth 
in the universe. Until the time of Galileo it was not only believed 
but taught that the earth had a stationary place in the sky, and 
that the sun, the planets, and the stars even, all revolved about 
this little orb. Previous to the time of Columbus, it was blas- 
phemy for any church member to declare or to believe that the 
earth was round. Salvation depended not only on the willingness 
to accept the theory that the earth was flat, but it was made a 
test of a fitness to live. 

(132) 



ONE STEP MORE 



133 



When daylight began to burst through the chinks of 
science, tortures became abundant and increased in number in 
proportion as the old errors were contested. The most sacred 
literature of the Church, the most solemn of her services, the most 
impressive and awe-inspiring of her decrees have been directed 
against the bodies, the lives and the souls of those who believed 
that the earth was round, and that the heavens did not travel about 
it once a day; for the Church taught and proved by the Old Testa- 
ment that it was blasphemy to then believe what science has since 
shown to be the truth. Previous to the age of Columbus, the earth 
was placed above hell and below Heaven; the latter being divided 
into sections. The wood cuts of the old religious books of the 
Christian Church may still be seen in the Xurcmberg Chronicle, of 
1493, and in the various editions of the Magarita Philosopluca, 
from 1503 on for many years. The most brilliant theologian since 
the dawn of Christianity was undoubtedly St. Thomas Aquinas; 
and his writings make it blasphemy to dispute the flatness of the 
earth and its under and upper apartments, as well as the other 
palpable errors of the Church. More than this, such great re- 
ligious scientists as Cardinal d'Ailly and Yincent of Beauvais made 
great efforts to show not only that the Old Testament sustained 
these claims, but that they proved the truth of the Old Testament. 
Yet the Christian Church of to-day admits that the claims were 
founded upon false ideas and were the rankest errors ever made. 
Why does the Church admit this? Because science has shown 
conclusively that the impressive beliefs of the Church were wrong. 
Yet the Bible declares that the sun stood still; what then? It 
is capable of explanation in a number of ways, without lessening 
the value of the Bible, or its sacred character. AVhere science is 
sure of her ground, everything else must give way. This is the 
rule of creation. In nearly every university of the world there is 
a professorship devoted to the work of reconciling the Scriptures 
with science. The first step recognizes the fact that when abso- 
lutely certain knowledge is in conflict with the statements of the 
Bible, the latter must be explained. Thus, the account in Genesis 
is recognized as a poem embodying the current tradition of crea- 
tion; although some of the leading theological schools present it 
as a figure, as many another portion of the Old Testament is 
regarded; the office being to introduce the moral of the fuller 
events of time. Later on in this book we take an exact position 



134 



IMMORTALITY 



in the matter: and the only attitude that will rescue the sacred 
book from the assaults now made upon it by the press and public 
vultures. 

The wrongs committed by the Church in torturing and 

putting to death those who believed that the earth was round and 
that it revolved about the sun, may be ascribed to an ardent desire 
to defend the faith. They declared a thousand times that if 
Galileo was right, the Bible was a fraud; and as the latter proposi- 
tion could not be true, they proceeded to imprison Galileo. They 
did not stop to recall, what they well knew, that the Bible was a 
collection of various writings of all ages, including notes, marginal 
corrections, alterations and many disputed lines, chapters and 
books, parts of which have been rejected from time to time; that 
the origin of much of the collection is wrapped in mystery; that 
no one has ever yet been authorized to call it inspired; and that 
what the Church has announced as inspired at one time, the same 
Church has. in instances, repudiated at another. Science, there- 
fore, need not be regarded as the foe of the Church. In those 
mediaeval centuries the upholders of the Bible did the best they 
knew; and if, in their zeal, they tortured thousands of innocent 
men and women, stretching their bodies upon the rack, breaking 
their bones upon the wheel, burning alive those who were created 
in the image of God, it must be said in their behalf that their only 
purpose was to defend the banner of love and the doctrines of good 
will to men, and charitable forgiveness. While some poor girl was 
roasting at the stake, the church members grasped each other by 
the hand and breathed a sigh of happy peace; and, when night fell, 
and the chill, cold rains were keeping company with the hissing 
flesh, the sanctified souls in their warm homes were drinking cups 
of cheer and listening to tales of merriment. So it was in older 
days of religious worship, Avhen parents threw their babes upon the 
flames, and the sound of beating drums drowned "out the cries of 
the little sufferers. So it is in the present age, when churches 
split over creeds, and hatred draws the line of salvation's needs with 
revengeful malice. 

What is now known as the Copernican theory, or revolu- 
tion of the earth around the sun, was promulgated in a book 
published by Copernicus in 1543. He died on the day it was 
issued. The scientists of Europe, who believed in the new theory, 
were silenced by the Church; and the records show that the 



ONE STEP .MORE 



135 



Catholics, Protestants, Lutherans, Calvinists, Anglicans and all, 
pronounced the discovery as atheistic, and all who spoke in its 
favor as blasphemers. Martin Luther said, "This fool wishes to 
reverse the entire science of astronomy; but sacred Scripture tells 
us that Joshua commanded the sun to stand still, and not the 
earth/- 1 Melancthon, a great Protestant, and the leader of his 
branch of the Church, commented thus on Copernicus: "It is a 
want of honesty and decency to assert such notions publicly; and 
the example is pernicious. It is the part of a good mind to accept 
the truth as revealed by God, and to acquiesce in it." He then 
quotes from Psalms and Ecclesiastes certain passages which prove, 
he says, in the most positive manner that the earth stands fast, 
and that the sun moves round it. He also adds eight other proofs 
of the assertion that "the earth can be nowhere if not in the centre 
of the universe." He suggests that severe measures be taken against 
these new scientists. Calvin took up the fight. He cited the first 
verse of the ninety-third Psalm: "The earth is sta Wished that it 
cannot be moved;" and proceeded to expose the false science of 
Copernicus. Others cited various statements from the Old Testa- 
ment, and notably the strong one that the sun "'runneth about 
from one end of the heavens to the other." Father Caccini de- 
clared that "geometry is of the devil," and the Church promoted 
him. Cardinal Bellarmin, one of the profoundest thinkers the 
world has ever known, said that Galileo's discovery "vitiates the 
whole Christian plan of salvation;" and he told the world of the 
awful consequences that must result to religion if it was proved 
that the earth revolves about the sun. Father Lecarze declared 
the sun, the moon and all the orbs of the sky to be nothing but 
lights, and said that if there were other planets, they must be in- 
habited, since God makes nothing in vain; and if they were 
inhabited, then, the whole plan of salvation was destroyed, for the 
inhabitants of other planets cannot be descended from Adam, by 
whose fall alone is redemption made possible. 

All the great scientists in the last three centuries have 
been compelled to wear the epithet "infidels," no matter how pure 
their lives. Galileo thus stands in the noblest company of earth; 
though long since the Christian churches, Catholic and Protestant 
alike, have acknowledged their errors, and to-day welcome the 
science of Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, Locke, Pascal, and hosts 
of others, as containing simple truths. This will be the method 



136 



IMMORTALITY 



of warring between that same Old Testament and the new steps 
in science, until theologians learn the greatest of all lessons yet 
to be conned, that the collected writings of the Scriptures contain 
many passages that are merely the opinions of the people on 
matters of ordinary observation. Why should the sublime instruc- 
tion of that sacred work be doubted, because somehow the state- 
ment that the earth is fixed, and similar assertions have been 
included in the writings? It is now well known that ancient 
owners of copies would add their own thoughts in places, and that 
these were embodied as the true text in subsequent manuscript 
editions. Yet errors so introduced are now charged against the 
whole work, whenever science discloses the falsity of the state- 
ments. 

It has been deemed advisable to preface this chapter 

with this reference to the past struggles of the two sources of in- 
formation; for we must justify our preference for a fact as against 
a tradition, opinion, doctrine or theory, no matter in what associa- 
tion these may be found. It might be proper to add that we seek 
the truth; not our belief as to what is the truth, but the solid fact 
itself. We have no object otherwise. We are not one of those 
who would like to see the Bible fall; but our strongest desire is to 
defend it; for there is nothing to take its place. If the God of the 
Bible were to be ignored, we might as well draw the black curtain 
of oblivion over the whole universe and fall to sleep in its silence. 

We can now with better grace look boldly into the 
realism of geology, and appreciate its facts. The most conspicuous 
of these is the onward march of the earth's crust toward some goal; 
its early blank condition is apparent; its first steps, succeeded by 
others, each distinct and strongly marked by an uplifting of all 
conditions, is clearly proven; and the great leaps in a series of 
sharply defined periods are as remarkable in their .portent as any- 
thing that the mind of man can conceive. If this were all hap- 
hazard, we would be compelled to answer some pertinent questions. 
How did matter originate? How can intelligence exist without a 
cause? Could it be possible for mere space to give birth to man? 
If we are the result of natural or supernatural forces, how did they 
come to be? Could a force originate itself? If so, could it do 
so out of nothing? If not out of nothing, then whence came the 
source from which it originated? The following propositions are 
to be met: 



ONE STEP MOKE 



137 



1. The condition of the earth has either retarded, since its 
first creation; 

2. Or it has remained unprogressive; 

3. Or it has advanced. 

There is positive evidence that it has not retarded; and that 
it has not remained passive; nor does any living being believe 
either of these two propositions. On the other hand, there is 
overwhelming evidence that it has advanced, and everybody knows 
this to be true. 

r 624 i 

The fountain seeks the level of its source. 

This is the 624th Ealston Principle, and represents a law. 
In physics it is not always true that the water succeeds in reaching 
the level, owing to loss of power by the friction of the air and 
its channels of supply; but it is well known that water conducted in 
pipes from one height to another will always reach, as well as 
seek, the level of its source. In the universe there is no friction; or 
the earth's revolutions would have ceased long ago. In a larger 
sense, the power behind the progress of life on this planet is mani- 
festly at work in the many steps of progress that appear in the 
onward march of existence. There is no recall, no turning back; 
no halting. The tendency is all one way; and it is safe to say that 
there is a fixed goal ahead. 

We will not conceive failure, for the manifestation of 
power exceeds all the necessary requirements of success. So much 
is known of this power, and so grandly does it maintain its forces 
in all parts of the universe, that its very existence is proof positive 
of the ability to succeed. There is but one question involved in 
the matter; and that question is, — What is the standard set? When 
this inquiry is answered, we can safely turn to man's place in 
nature, and solve the problem of life. Thus far we have two 
propositions clearly understood: 

1. The condition of existence is continually advancing. 

2. The goal set does not admit of failure. 

The next step is to ascertain the height and greatness of the 
standard to be readied. As a basis, we find the power behind life 
to be perfect and immaculate; and this power must be the fountain 
head, to whose level the results of creation are certainly tending. 

Man is the climax of earthly creation, if he is the goal of 



138 



IMMORTALITY 



all this planetary life: and. in order to be such goal, it must appear 
that he is a success and not a failure. If a success, then he must be 
perfect; or, if not perfect, he must be proved to be the best that 
nature, the handmaid of the Creator, is capable of accomplishing. 
In answer to this it may be asserted, by way of objection, that the 
earth is a transitory dwelling place, from which man graduates to 
his perfect state hereafter; that all that is earthly is imperfect, and 
all hope of a complete life is centered upon a spiritual abode in 
Heaven. We will not answer these objections at this place; but will 
devote a chapter to them later on. It may, however, be proper to say 
at this time that the claim of a perfect life only in a spiritual Heaven 
is a challenge to the Creator, as it charges Him with making matter 
that is incapable of nothing but failure. Furthermore, such claim 
is given the lie by the ever onward tendency of matter out of a 
black past; coming up from bad to good, from chaos to order, from 
conditions of primitive crudeness to marvels of splendid complex- 
ity, even to man; and the power that drew forth the germs of intri- 
cate life from out the floating mud; that set the pace of progress 
and never allowed it to lag even though it were buried beneath the 
debris of continents; that kept steadily emerging from lower to 
higher life, and carried the banner of progress over the wrack of 
shifting seas and toppling mountains, till the dawn of comparative 
peace heralded the approach of a new species; the same power that 
has brought man out of matter, is certainly able to go one step 
further and improve matter in man. It is weak and shambling 
to assert that all the glorious progress of matter in the past must 
come to an end of shame, in a confessed failure, by setting forth 
the next step in this progress as spiritual rather than material. 

Matter will not stop at man. It cannot be true. It has 
been molded and shaped in all forms of life, serving the lowest, the 
middle grades, and the highest up to our era; steadily achieving 
something better, as all the evidence 'abundantly proves; and it 
cannot stop at this juncture. If there had been, in some dark aeon 
of the past, an overwhelming of some species that equaled or ap- 
proached the excellence of human existence, then we might say 
that man is the best that God can do with matter; but the facts 
show clearly that the opposite is true. Earth was never ready for 
the race until now. Every step in the long eras behind us has 
been a leap toward the conditions that now exist; and man has 
been as steadily coming up out of the clay, as the stairs in the 



ONE STEP MORE 



139 



castle come up out of the dungeon beneath. It is preposterous to 
cut off this progress at this time. Just as well might a railroad, 
built by human ingenuity over swamps, through forests and around 
mountains, leveling barriers and ploughing through obstacles up 
to the very last mile of its journey, stop suddenly in a state of in- 
completeness with its goal in sight, but never reached. The lips 
that would utter words of praise for what had been done so well, 
would drive home a shaft of ridicule for the stupidity that failed 
to crown the task with success. It is just as stupid to imagine that 
God intends to stop this side the goal; it contradicts the Bible; 
it denies the facts that are too plain to be questioned, and it 
stamps this earthly life with failure at the threshold of its com- 
pletion. 



CHAPTER XVII. 



A BLACK CHAPTER. 
[—625—] 




>HE fountain head of creation is perfection. 

This is the 625th Ralston Principle. It presents a law and 
a fact. The earth and all its life are inseparable and must be 



considered together. The time may come when man and 
earth will be unknown to each other ; but it is an assertion that is not 
easily proved. It would be hard to find any warrant for such a 
statement. For the present, we are sure that man and earth are 
inseparable: as life and earth, mind, vitality and matter are all 
one and the same, having a common origin and a common in- 
terest. 

Man and geology are closely related, and can never be con- 
sidered apart. They belong to each other in the same sense that 
water and fish are co-related. Geology might exist without man, 
as it once did; but man cannot exist without geology. The period 
through which planetary existence is passing, is called the psychic. 
It embraces two ages; the age of the savage, and the age of civiliza- 
tion. The latter did not precede the former; and at no time has 
the order of progress been reversed. As far as human existence 
is concerned, the savage era prevailed previous to about six thou- 
sand years ago. Since then the civilized era has been on; and its 
outside limit cannot possibly exceed sixty centuries. 

During this period, of which the modern age forms so for- 
tunate a part, there has been a very steady equilibrium; the un- 
dulations of elevation and depression being exhibitions of varying 
conditions rather than marks of change. Thus, the Greek scholar 
was fully the equal of any that has lived in our times. The old 
farmers of Asia knew as much as do those of our free America, 
and probably more; and, had they been blessed with the opportu- 
nities for invention, they would have produced the steam engine 
and the electric light five thousand years sooner than we did. 
Among the lost arts are evidences of a brain superiority, as amaz- 
ing as the wizard thought of the nineteenth century. In art and 

(140) 



A BLACK CHAPTER 



141 



architecture, the ancients remain the masters of all ages. It is 
thus seen that the era of civilization is merely a general step in the 
progress of the earth; and it should be considered as embracing 
about six thousand, years of time; while, preceding it, was the era 
of savagery, extending back many more thousands of years. These 
are distinct, decided, and separate leaps out of a brute past. 

The purpose of this chapter is to show that man is not 
the goal of creation, for he falls far short of the requirements of 
success. No one believes that the savage was the ultimate end of 
existence, the climax of all the great journey of millions of years; 
yet the savage everywhere believes that he is the sole chosen ideal 
of the universe. His religion, his hope of a future life, and his 
methods of worship, all point the same way as do those of the best 
types of civilization. The fact is, there is one step yet to be taken, 
and perhaps more than one; and, in some future era, we shall be 
held up as examples of crude barbarism when compared with the 
newer and whiter species. What the savages of prehistoric 
humanity are to us, we shall be to others in the next leap onward. 

This position is perfectly clear and easily proved. It is 
not in dispute that a fountain seeks the level of its source, or head; 
nor does any one question for a moment that, in the case of crea- 
iion, the master-mind is a representative of perfection. We use 
this word in its true sense; meaning that the power that can 
originate and carry on such a plan of existence as this, is able to 
complete it. By perfection we mean the ability to reach the end 
sought; to carry the work through; to perfect it. If a superior 
Maker wishes to produce an inferior piece of work, it is certainty 
true that such a result may be attained; but, when all steps in 
progress show an effort to reach the level of the fountain-source, 
the height of the God-head, it is worse than useless to argue that 
an inferior piece of work is the ultimate goal. 

Let us look at man. We will discard his savage prede- 
cessor, whose only use may have been to transmit the seed. The 
man of civilization is our study. We embrace his existence as a 
race for six thousand years; and whether we accept him as now 
found, or as we might have seen him many centuries ago, the 
results will lie the same. He is a very imperfect being. In the 
old Bible days, it appears that the human race was so bad that it 
was not fit to live. A tradition tells us that God repented that He 
had made man, and proceeded to destroy him; saving only one 



142 



IMMORT ALU Y 



family, in order to keep the species alive. The tradition serves to 
hold up the wickedness and worthlessness of the old Bible pop- 
ulace. If you will take the trouble to re-read the Old Testament, 
and to write down in a book the names and repetitions of crimes 
committed and recorded in that volume, } r ou will have a display of 
wickedness wide and broad enough to fill the chambers of hell 
and cement its walls against all comers for the remainder of 
eternity. 

It is pleasant to think that the world is better to-day ; yet, 
in that equilibrium that holds all humanity down to a certain 
average, we see the fearful percentage of imperfection. If the age 
in which we live is the best in the history of the species, we are 
safe in drawing our conclusions from the evidence it affords, rather 
than from some fairer past in which ideals thrived. We may pass 
over the depravity of ancient times, and the blood-reeking ages of 
murder; for our day is one of comparative peace. Yet the cruel 
men and women of Nero's century are part of the present race. 
The evidence is too clear that, within the last few hundred years, 
a vast majority of the great world's population have been murdered 
and tortured by the criminal minority; taking the whole of man- 
kind collectively. The so-called advance of civilization has tended 
to check this product of crime; but there are great areas of eartli 
where few persons die a natural death, even in this best of ages and 
the era of comparative peace. 

There are certain divisions of the world that serve to con- 
fine great classes of people. In the first, or lowest, we may place 
all the island countries, from Australia down to the humblest home 
of the sea. The native life of these islands is barbarous; but 
where there is a pretense of civilization, it is brutal and criminal. 
Of the settlers who go to such parts in search of a living or of 
permanent residence, ninety-seven per cent, are brutal and crim- 
inal. Even in the advanced English population, the pretense of 
honesty and decency is so hollow that it is nowhere regarded as a 
thing of substance, except in the case of a feeble minority. New 
countries, as a rule, are settled by ad venturers, speculators and the 
refuse masses; although there are honest and moral people in every 
such crowd, but they are laughed at by their companions. Taking 
total depravity as zero in the scale of one to one hundred, we find 
that the millions of humanity who come and go each generation in 
the islands of the earth, are less than four per cent, in such scale. 



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143 



By total depravity is meant fifty points below fifty, or the rank of 
worthlessness. Thus a street loafer who plays the continued role 
of bummer, hut is harmless, may be ranked at fifty in the scale of 
one hundred, being that much above the condition of total de- 
pravity. If, instead of being harmless, he shall appear to be 
dangerous, as a thief, an insulter of women, a burglar, highway- 
man, murderer or black-hearted desperado, his percentage would 
fall- from that of a worthless person down toward that of total 
depravity. We present this scale of rank in order that the very 
low status of the island population may be understood. 

A few points above that class is the conglomerate 
humanity of Africa. We -are compelled to include the semi-civil- 
ization of Egypt and the settlements of adventurers scattered along 
the coast: all tending to raise the average a point or two. But, 
if the earth had no other population than that of Africa, with its 
good and its bad, the reeking filth and bestial horrors of the masses 
would envelope the race in one broad sea of blackness. Next in 
the order of ascent is Asia; and, above that country, are the tribes 
of South America. Europe is one step higher, and North America 
holds the lead by a small margin. The best product of the best 
age of earth is found in our own country. A traveler of careful 
judgment, who had studied the peoples of both countries, north 
and south, declared that the Scotch were God's noblest product; 
basing his claim on their honesty, virtue and religion. A close 
familiarity with the real people discloses the fact that the Scotch 
are mentally very dull. Their environments are such that honesty 
is a climatic trait, rather than a voluntary habit. This physical 
integrity is rarely ever found in the upper classes, and is almost 
totally lacking in the lower third of the masses, who cheat on the 
least pretext. This stratum is also very coarse, unclean and of ani- 
mal habits. As to virtue, the Scotch soldiery are the most vil- 
lainous seducers of the girls of that country; and yet the immorality 
of Eobert Burns is copied, to-day very extensively among the rural 
classes. The French people, with the exception of her large 
cities, are more virtuous than the Scotch. Drunkenness prevails 
in every grade, and the appetite for intoxicants is always con- 
clusive evidence of depravity, even amid circumstances of refine- 
ment. The religion of the Scotch people is their most com- 
mendable virtue; but this, upon analysis, is seen to be due to a fixed 
non-elastic, brittle mental temperament. Their religious ideas are 



144 



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simple and erroneous. Their errors make them bigoted and cruel 
in their relations with others, driving love and sympathy from 
their hearts. A Scotch Christian knows no mercy and yields none. 
His justice is adamantine, and his heart is so constituted that he 
would eat a hearty supper while his daughter was burning at the 
stake for her honest and justifiable dissent from his bigotry. Such 
is the so-called morality of Scotland. In goodness, warped and 
distorted; in badness, low and repugnant. Surely, this is not the 
acme of creation. In our opinion the peasantry of England is the 
best European product of humanity; but it is unclean, narrow- 
witted and drunken. 

In America the conditions are favorable for the free 
development of the very best that can come forth from the psychic- 
period of progress. This we call the second, or civilized era; the 
first being the age of the brute-savage, who lived in prehistoric- 
times. We are passing through the second stage, and geology calls 
it the psychic because thought is supposed to rule. This is a mis- 
take, however; for the physical and animal powers are yet supreme. 
Thought has come well to the front in this psychic era, although 
it is led by the lower instincts. As the various epochs of past 
geological times have been Well defined, and have always appeared 
in the form of steps onward and upward, like the sides of the 
pyramids of Egypt, so this era through which we are now passing, 
and whose history is being enacted before our very eyes, is one of 
these steps in the ascent of life. How near it may be to the top, 
is a question to be considered by itself; but that it is not the final 
leap, is too plain a fact to be seriously doubted. 

It is in this country of freedom that fitness, morality, 
worth, merit, excellence, and all that tends God-ward have full 
scope. There is no squeezing or pinching a man to compel him 
to be decent. The Puritans accomplished the best moral results 
that have been attained in any age or clime; but the fact that they 
were compelled to use absurdly severe measures, is proof that 
goodness does not bubble up of itself like gas in natural water. 
Had the Puritans relaxed their discipline, and accommodated their 
conduct to the dictates of pure reason; had their blue-laws been 
made to please their critics: the stern hardihood of our national 
character, at a time when it was needed in the crisis of independ- 
ence, would have been sadly lacking, and our people would yet be 
toiling under the yoke of British rule. The guns of revolutionary 



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145 



patriots were loaded with righteousness, rammed down by the rod 
of unsavory discipline; and every shot hurt as it killed; while the 
vestiges of their moral hardihood, handed down through succeed- 
ing generations, are held up to scorn before the eyes of laughing 
criminals. It is easy to condemn the terrible severity of Puri- 
tanical training; but the fault is with the people whose decency 
cannot be upheld in any other way; moral suasion must have a 
God-like basis on which to work. 

The product of moral freedom on American soil, under 
the stars and stripes, is not teeming with encouragement. That 
there is an ever increasing army of infidels, is due chiefly to the 
Sunday newspapers, whose very existence and the income of whose 
owners are dependent upon the continual assaults upon the Sab- 
bath, in the hope of its final destruction. If the church members 
were really in earnest in their professed worship of God, they 
would put an end to this chief enemy of the Church, the Sunday 
newspaper; for it is their purchasing the sheet, and patronizing the 
advertisers, that make the vile trash a possibility even. A com- 
bined effort of Christians would save the Sabbath. As it is, it is 
doomed. In a subsequent chapter we shall undertake to produce 
the evidence that proves the existence of a personal devil. Certain 
facts are beyond dispute. What they establish, is for you to de- 
cide. The most learned men of the times agree with the noted 
divine who recently said: "When a young man I believed in a per- 
sonal devil; later on, I believed rather in a malignant influence 
alluring men away from right; but I am now convinced that the 
works of the devil are as clearly proof of his existence as a being, 
as that the works of God prove His reality." Evil is manifest in 
distinct purposes, through cunning devices, by inviting methods. 
The great assault of the age is upon the Sabbath, and its downfall 
is but a question of time. 

You will notice, if you study such matters at all, that the 
best types of moral communities and at the same time of noble 
manhood and womanhood are found among those people who 
respect and observe the Sabbath; and the worst types are among 
those who ignore it. This is true whether such observance is 
prompted by religion or ethics. Apart from all considerations of 
faith, the soul of man needs nourishment and attention, as does the 
body or the mind. Neglect the body, and disease follows; neglect 
the mind, and insanity follows; neglect the soul, and depravity 



146 



IMMORTALITY 



follows. This is the rule of life, stamped indellibly ou the human 
heart. The devil, for such we shall call him, never meets his foe 
or his victim in open conflict, but insinuates himself into the good 
graces of his conquest "by pleasant approaches. If no other ageney 
were capable of destroying the Sabbath, the bicycle alone has 
charms enough to accomplish this end. When it comes to the 
}3oint of deciding between religion and the bicycle., or between 
Sunday observance and this delightful method of breaking it, the 
bicycle rider reddens with haughty indignation and boldly de- 
nounces anyone who would enact a blue-law to forbid the pleasure: 
the great wheeling populace pats the rider on the back and puff's 
its cheeks with fomenting rage at the interference of '•'reformers"'" 
(the devil loves to shout this word at the noble heroes of the 
nation): while erery newspaper that carries, or hopes to carry, an 
advertisement of a bicycle, screams tfi hlue-laws/'* •'•'reformers/'" and 
dozens of things interlarded with sarcasm, the sword of Satan; all 
intended to overwhelm the Sabbath and pave the way for a larger 
sale of papers, and greater profits. We state that either cause, 
the bicycle or the Sunday newspaper, is capable of crushing out 
the Sacred Day. The reason of our positive assertion is apparent 
when we say that at no time in modern history has there been so 
much apathy, so much indifference, on the part of church mem- 
bers themselves, toward the preservation of the holy day of rest: 
and this apathy, coupled with a paid ministry, is the only weapon 
now in the hands of the Church wherewith to meet the combined 
assaults of its enemies. 

It is the opinion of certain men who have closely studied 
the matter, that the splitting of the Church into endless sects, and 
its constant quarrels within itself, indicate the grinding process of 
its demolition; that in the next fifty years its downfall will be com- 
plete: and with it will go the sacred Sunday, perishing in the lap 
of the Chicago theatre, the Cincinnati beer garden, the Xew 
Orleans house of prostitution, and the Xew York dime-novel news- 
paper; a mass of rottenness crushing the last vestige of mortal 
hope beneath its filthy weight, and probably closing the era and 
ending the present race. We dwell upon the position of the 
Church in this connection, for we are seeking the highest types 
of humanity, and there alone can they be found. When the ever 
increasing army of infidels, the product of Sunday journalism, the 
bicycle in its harmlessness, the apathy of church members, the 



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147 



insincerity of moralists, shall have borne clown with irresistible 
weight upon the frail edifice, the date of its fall may be written 
on its sides by any child. In the Church there are very few 
honest members, as may be proved by any person who will take 
the trouble to make the experiment and test. In the ministry 
there are very few preachers who did not take up the profession 
because they were unable to make a living in some other way. 
In the circle of worshippers are men and women with ends to 
gain; and the true inwardness of their religion may be seen by 
the ease with which they quarrel or are affronted. We gained 
the confidence of a number of clergymen with nourishing congre- 
gations; one said that there were but three members who, in his 
opinion, were sincere Christians; another had faith in eight; an- 
other in twelve; although the communicants were many times the 
number stated in each case. Malice and hatred are so easily 
excited among church members, even by the pretense of a quarrel 
or dispute, that the question of real conversion is readily settled. 
Our observation, founded upon years of analysis in one locality and 
another, compels us to believe that not more than seven per cent, 
on an average, of all professed worshippers of God are genuinely 
converted, or are honest in their protestations of religion. The 
bearing of this fact upon the matter at issue will be seen later. 

The cloud darkens as we proceed. It is a black chapter, 
this. The sunlight is ahead, but far ahead. With only seven 
per cent, of genuineness in the Church, we certainly cannot hope 
for its permanency against the assault of powerful and persistent 
enemies. If it is a sham, in part at least, it has a bed of sand on 
which to rest, and its fall is a natural end. We are not taking 
the position that there are better men and women outside of the 
Church than are in it; for this is not true. The average moral and 
intellectual status of those within the Church is far higher than 
that of those without; or, to put it in a more forcible way, the good 
people drift Church-ward, and the bad drift world- ward. We do 
not know more persons than our experience has been able to 
compass, for time and space are briefly limited in life; but, as far as 
we have gone, we are convinced that every moral man and woman 
seeks church membership; and we have never yet seen one whom 
we would trust, who is not in the ranks of Christianity. The 
bad go with the good; and this is why the good are contaminated 
by the wide-spread hypocrisy in the Church. 



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IMMORTALITY 



Having gone thus far, finding an honest percentage of 
seven, a dishonest percentage of ninety-three, ancl the moral side 
of the community contained in this full rounded circle of prevail- 
ing insincerity, we naturally wonder what must he the status of 
those who not only do not profess to be standard bearers of 
morality, but are shying stones and sarcasm at their better fellow 
mortals. There are four classes: first, the pretenders; second, the 
assailants; third, the criminals; fourth, the slums. These are the 
divisions of the fairest people on earth, the liberty-loving Ameri- 
cans. That the slums are increasing rapidly is proved by statistics. 
One-half of New York City is peopled by slum-life, whose tastes 
are catered to by the numerous daily newspapers. It is for this 
class, the shimmers with pennies, that illustrations, cartoons, big 
headlines, and bravo editorials are promulgated; for it is this slum 
class that feed the enormous circulation of sensational journalism. 
Therefore, if you wish to see the reflex picture of such life, you 
have only to buy a paper with large-type headings at the tops of its 
columns; the diction of the slums. Crime and criminals drift 
cityward; but New York, like Paris, London, Chicago, or other 
large places, is saturated with evil. The only elements of good are 
found within the Church; and when her noble influences go out 
to elevate the lowly, every criminal and every newspaper cries out 
against the effort. That this is oft -repeated history in New York 
City, may be proved by examining the files of her journals. 

A fair example of the universal villainy of humanity in its 
height of civilization may be found in Jersey City. This munic- 
ipality carries the proud record of being the most depraved place 
of its size on the face of the globe; despite the fact that there are 
there, as in Chicago, a few dozens of respectable men and women. 
Jersey City, in the first place, is soaked in beer and whiskey. 
Drunkenness and its attendant crimes are widespread, and rarely 
reprimanded. From the futility of prosecutions, and the inability 
to convict, the records of the courts might be used to show that 
these evils are less than in other places. If you are a student of 
life, it would be worth your while to live a month in Jersey City, 
moving once a day into some new section. You would find that, 
with certain noteworthy and noble exceptions, the men, young and 
old, are drunkards, gamblers and seducers; that the stamp of 
murder, in fact or hope, is imprinted on the brows of an exceed- 
ingly large criminal class; that a majority of the citizens are prowl- 



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149 



ers, bummers, loafers, or thieves; infesting the streets, lanes, alleys 
and wharves as so many rats might infest a cellar; and you would 
have to search long and well among the large majority of the 
people to find a face on which the hang-dog look of villainy was 
not the chief feature. Walk, if you will, through, her streets at 
morning, noon or night, and note the sullen, sunken eyes of 
depravity; or go into her many thousand homes, and see the filth 
and animal uncleanness that prevail in a ver} r large majority of 
them. This spirit of evil taints even the better classes; and the 
churches themselves have to maintain a vigilant struggle against 
internal dissension. Such is Jersey City, the gambling den of 
America, the rum-shop of the East. Could the noble State on 
which she is a putrid excrescence, amputate the cancer, and affix 
it to Greater New York, the affiliation w r ould delight that metrop- 
olis, even to the paroxysms of ecstacy, and leave behind a beloved 
absence encased in a nauseating memory. Yet Jersey City is 
valuable to us; it shows the result of personal liberty, of universal 
beer, and unrestrained crime; the three ideals of the great masses 
of American citizens. It tells the story of American destiny; for, 
when courage shall have failed those who are upholding the banner 
of decency, the slums will swell to the front and to the surface of 
all our population; beer will flow in continuous streams; horse- 
racing will sound the keynote of respectable gambling; Sunday 
will be a memory fit only for ridicule; the saloon, the bawdy-house, 
and the den will furnish the new architecture of the cities; and the 
]and from end to end will reek with crime and freedom, compared 
with which the Jersey City of to-day is a Garden of Eden. 

Thirty thousand murders are annually committed in the 
United States alone; a majority of which go unpunished, many un- 
detected. Out of one hundred murders committed in a few weeks 
"within the radius of a certain city, only twenty were pursued by 
the authorities far enough to capture the supposed slayers. The 
killing of Mr. and Mrs. Borden in Fall Eiver, Mass., in broad day- 
light, is even, to-day an unsolved mystery; and thousands of cases 
likewise end in fruitless investigation. Death seems to fall upon 
the high and low with equal ease, at the hand of the ruffian or the 
gentleman. The status of morality or refinement does not pre- 
clude the possibility of this crime. In the South, the gallant sons 
and gallant fathers of the first families, high-bred and high-strung, 
have killed many more gallant sons and gallant fathers, through 



150 



IMMORTALITY 



the instrumentality of family feuds. The statistics of chivalrous 
murder are simply astounding, and would not be believed unless 
seen. In the North the same refined class of slayers may be found. 
Two women who had been neighbors for years in New York State, 
fell to quarrelling over a trivial matter. Indignation followed 
resentment, and malice split hairs over insult, until each woman, 
or rather lady, called her husband out to defend her character, 
and more particularly her reputation from the onslaught of the 
other lady. Both refined husbands came out, and these gentle- 
men proceeded to kill each other. All four of these individuals 
occupied the very highest moral and social ranks. This malignant 
spirit is almost universal. It needs only the spark to light it into 
flame. 

The thugs and cutthroats that are so numerous in the 
cities, attain a percentage of one-fourth in the country as well as 
in the towns; and this is true even among the so-called refined or 
highly civilized sections of the land. The twelve hundred thou- 
sand public criminals are but a handful to those who lurk in their 
own tracks, undiscovered or unpursued. If fraud, cheating and 
false pretences were punished as the law prescribes, ninety per 
cent, of all merchants and farmers would be in jail; by which is 
meant that the business men of villages, towns and cities are violat- 
ing the criminal code; and an equal per cent, of the so-called 
honest, industrious farmers are bent upon the same mischief. If 
you trade with these bucolic innocents, and give them the least op- 
portunity to defraud, you will surfer at their hands. You, who 
talk more than you think, may challenge this statement as too 
pessimistic; but, if proof and not sentiment is what you desire, go 
into the country, in any State of this Union, trade with the 
farmers in all or any branches of their business, and give them no 
more than the ordinary opportunities for cheating, and ninety 
per cent, of them will amaze you by their civilization in cunning, 
artifice and fraud. We can easily prove that the shrewdest of 
adulterations in maple sugar, honey, butter and similar products 
are concocted in the rural brain. So great have become the frauds 
in milk production that inspectors are appointed by law to watch 
the health interests of the people; yet farmers, knowing their 
diseased cows to be a menace to the lives of children and others 
whose lives are dependent upon this kind of food, go on selling 
the milk, even when it is charged with tuberculosis. If hens are 



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151 



rotting under some malignant disease, the first thing the farmer 
does is to kill them, and dress them for the market. In fact, the 
foremost products of the beef and fowl trade are the sick hens and 
cattle that must be got rid of as soon as their maladies are known. 
A great majority of the farmers cling tenaciously to their well 
stock, but lose no time in selling the diseased specimens to the 
markets. To them it is honest to receive money for these dangers. 

A great industry has arisen in producing pure country 
butter, by the purchase of grease, refuse fat and cleanings formerly 
used for making soap; cooking and refining it; mixing it with real 
butter, and shipping it to the cities direct from the farm, stamped 
as genuine. Some farmers purchase a low grade of butterine in 
the cities, and make it over on the farm. Thus, where a small 
herd of cows formerly yielded a ton annually of pure butter, the 
farmer now is enabled to ship three tons. We recall the case of 
the honest boy who buried a lot of hens that had died of the 
cholera; but his father dug them up, dressed and sold them. They 
were eaten in cities, possibly by invalids in some instances, and 
disease must have followed; but the knowledge of distress, torture 
and certain death would not have deterred that farmer, if he felt 
sure of concealment. This black-hearted villainy is found among 
ninety per cent, of our farmers, even including many who are con- 
sidered moral guides in their communities. In trading animals, 
the keynote is to cheat in order to avoid being out-cheated. 

The following charges are made against the sum total of 
mankind, in this our glorious land of liberty, the exceptions being 
chiefly among the noble men and women who love purity and aid 
its cause: First, ninety-seven per cent, are dishonest; second, nine- 
ty-eight per cent, are grossly selfish; third, ninety-nine per cent, 
are cowards; fourth, ninety-seven per cent, are filthy; fifth, ninety 
per cent, are of criminal instincts; sixth, ninety-nine per cent, are 
mean by nature. In short, the best of humanity are contemptible, 
despicable, filthy, coarse, obscene, treacherous, cowardly and crim- 
inal. So grave are these accusations that, unless we can sub- 
stantiate them, they must necessarily rebound upon our own heads, 
and inflict injury where none was contemplated. There have been 
pessimists in the world, but none so bold as to declare that ninety 
per cent, of the American population are of criminal instincts, or 
ninety-seven per cent, filthy. It sounds too much like the accusa- 
tion of a foreigner; but we are American born, and what we charge 



152 



IMMORTALLY Y 



against our own countrymen may be said against the English; and, 
if there is any margin of difference it is in favor of the Americans. 
Still these charges are outrageous and monstrous in their severity, 
and should not go unproved. While it is difficult to accumulate 
testimony in the brief space allotted to this part of the work, we 
shall do what is in our power, trusting chiefly to examples selected 
here and there to illustrate our meaning. 

Dishonesty is our first charge, and the estimate of ninety- 
seven per cent, is a low one. Some investigators have declared that 
there are no honest persons unless they are mentally dwarfed or 
stupid; but such claim is not substantiated. We have found men 
and women whose tongues speak only the truth, and whose lives 
are exemplifications of whitest honesty; and it is our opinion that 
three per cent, of this nation are of this class. It is true that about 
forty per cent, act upon the principle that honesty is the best 
policy, and they use it as a policy, not as a virtue. They would 
not break a law, or cheat in any transaction where there is the 
slightest possibility of detection, for that would mean ruin and 
disgrace; but they would give a false excuse or answer without 
hesitation. "I was not at home," — U I have no money with me," — 
"I have a prior engagement," — f *Ton sang beautifully," — "Your 
hat is lovely," — "I am so glad you called," — "These goods are the 
best I have ever been able to offer for the money," etc., etc. If 
you are a believer in the honesty of certain merchants, collect 
their advertisements for a year, and read them all at one time. If 
you have full faith in the clergy, select the one who most impresses 
you, and get into his private life, and you will be surprised at the 
moral contradictions found there. But you need not do this. 
Start in earnest, examine the moral condition of his congregation 
and the community in which he lives; note the influence of the 
moneyed class on his conduct, and the policy he displays in not 
antagonizing them; watch the aggression of sin, and his careful 
evasion of conflict with it; consider the diplomacy with which he 
avoids stirring up the stench of iniquities that surround his life, 
and you will find a man wearing the robes of Heaven, drawing his 
salary as regularly as it is paid, and yet conniving at sin, winking at 
evil, and keeping out of the line of battle in the warfare between 
the forces of right and wrong. You know more than one such 
clergyman. You can summon up in your mind now, a preacher 
who shouts at wrong from his pulpit, and yet who avoids public 



A BLACK CHAPTER 



153 



unpopularity by masterly inactivity in the only way there is of 
suppressing evil, by practical methods. His mouth is his weapon; 
bat his heart is afraid. Ministers have written to us in the vein 
of one of them whose words we copy: "I know what the Lord 
wants me to do, but if I do it I shall be publicly abused and driven 
from the pulpit. My family will starve. I must do less of His 
will and live." Herein is a confession of dishonesty. If integrity 
cannot be found in the pulpit, where else shall we look for it? 
You must be dull indeed, if you sannot pierce the thin gauze of 
policy which covers the life of the clergyman. Not long ago we 
received the following expression from one who was heartsick with 
his own deceit: "When a young man I looked upon the minister 
as the embodiment of the purest honesty. Scarcely had I been 
installed, when I found the worthiest divines of our denomination 
advising me to use tact in raising money, securing members, and 
keeping peace. What they described as tact I found to be trick- 
ery." It is the right-hand power of success in nearly all cases, and 
what we mean is clearly understood by the cloth. 

Selfishness is our second charge; and we assert that 
ninety-eight per cent, of the people are grossly addicted to this 
fault. This sin involves dishonesty; but we will consider it apart 
from that. All wealth is accumulated selfishness. The multi- 
millionaires squeeze the life-blood from all beneath them; and so 
hard-hearted are these rich men that they knowingly ride to 
affluence over the corpses of the thousands whose toil has con- 
tributed to their success. There are one hundred thousand fam- 
ilies of enormous wealth in America; and there is not a male or 
female among them who would turn aside from the emaciated 
form .that lies in their path if such deviation would delay their 
approach to power; but the wheels of the chariot would be driven 
straight over the neck of the unfortunate victim, while the oc- 
cupants smiled benignly at the skies that had showered fortune 
upon them. Contributions to Church or charity from ill gotten 
gains have always carried curses with them, as history has proven 
many times in recent years. 

What is true of enormous wealth is true of its lesser 
degrees. If you know of any unselfish families, or think you 
know, take note of them, and form a better acquaintance. We 
declare a person selfish who will waste dollars to glut their mental 
or physical appetites, yet will not spend cents for advancing any 



154 



IMMORTALITY 



worthy cause. A certain town, having already three liquor li- 
censes, advocated the granting of three more on the plea that the 
license-fees of a few hundred dollars would reduce their taxes. 
The voters, their wives and families, all urged the matter on, well 
knowing that the six licensees must create new business and a 
broader field of intemperance in order to thrive and pay the fees. 
When, after awhile, the marked increase of poverty, and the loss of 
values raised the taxes to an extraordinary rate, the people saw the 
error of their judgment, their regret was confined to the financial 
loss rather than to the army of drunkards and ruined lives their 
selfish policy had produced. If one per cent, of the time, money 
and effort that are spent on wasteful and injurious habits should 
be devoted to the uplifting of humanity in each communit} T , the 
country would take a great leap forward. Of all the excuses given 
for the unbalanced state of society, and the remedies suggested, 
selfishness and its decrease must be accorded the greatest import- 
ance. The drinker is selfish; the beer guzzler is selfish; the smoker 
is selfish, even on the street, when he leaves behind him a long 
trail of his smoke-laden breath to flaunt in the faces of women who 
are sickened by the vile habit; the dishonest man is selfish; the 
mean man is selfish; the coward is selfish; the gossiper, who flays 
reputation as the master flays his slave, is selfish; the idler is 
selfish; the criminal is selfish; the politician is selfish; the partisan 
is selfish; the Sunday breaker is selfish; the non-church attendant 
is selfish; the non-church member is selfish; the inactive Christian 
is selfish; the seeker after gain at the expense of another is selfish; 
the driver of a sharp bargain is selfish; the giver of charities for 
the advertising it brings is selfish; unsocial men and women are 
selfish; and all they who are indifferent to the cries of needed re- 
form are likewise selfish. 

Our third charge is that of cowardice. This is so prev- 
alent that it has been declared that all human beings are cowards 
when the real test comes. ^Ye do not refer to physical shrinking 
from danger; for there are brave men and women enough in the 
muscular department of life. The cowardice that is so universal is 
mental and moral, and hence genuine. AYe once asked three 
hundred business men why they remained silent in matters of 
public reform, or in the effort to suppress evil; and the reply of 
each was the reply of all, "It will hurt my business." Xot one 
dared to take the stand for right. So great has been the power of 



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155 



the press, in that it could with impunity malign any character, 
however white, that all professional and business men, and all office 
holders have warped their own consciences in order to save being- 
flayed by the cheap scribblers who write up whom they will. What 
seems most amazing is the fact that the judges of the courts, from 
the lowest to the highest, show their fear of the press and their 
inherent cowardice at the same time, by a continual catering to 
the wishes of the press. In all large cities there are newspapers 
that browbeat the judges, steal their decisions, anticipate their 
judgments, criticise their conduct even during the pendency of 
trials, and inflict themselves upon the proceedings of justice like 
vermin upon the body; yet no court has the courage to resent this 
effrontery. There is no large city in this country where reporters 
are not guilty of the grossest contempt of court, yet are never 
punished. Here are two examples of judicial cowardice. An earnest 
lawyer, pleading for an honest verdict, used this language: "If 
your honor permits this cause to be decided upon a mere tech- 
nicality, a fine point of practice, rather than upon the true merits 
of the issue, then this cannot be called a court of justice;" and the 
lawyer was fined fifty dollars for contempt of court. His position 
was perfectly right, and his remark proper, for justice is too often 
choked by technicalities, owing to the sophistry of judges; and 
very few cases are decided upon their honest merits. American 
courts are not respected by the people. The same judge who had 
the cowardice to fine the lawyer fifty dollars for his justifiable 
criticism, permitted a reporter of a city paper to abuse and threaten 
him in a "write-up," pending a decision; and, when the judgment 
was warped to suit the clamor of the reporter, the latter was 
allowed to steal it from the desk of a stenographer twenty-four 
hours before it was announced in court; all of which was called 
"newspaper enterprise." It was contempt of court of the most 
flagrant character, yet the judge who had the cowardice to fine an 
honest lawyer fifty dollars, was too cowardly to punish the gross 
contempt and crime of a real culprit, because he was afraid of the 
press. 

In New York City all the important cases of the courts, 
from the lowest to the highest, are tried in the sensational news- 
papers; and the fear of these harpies may be seen in the constant 
miscarriage of justice. Certain of the police judges adjourn all 
their cases in which the public shows an interest, and permit the 



156 



IMMORTALITY 



sensational papers to try them, and to decide them; then the 
courts follow suit. The extent of this cowardice is so great that 
one who follows the matter will be astounded at the facts, even in 
all cities. We recall the case of a justice of the peace who had 
entered judgment for the defendant in a certain trial, and who, 
upon reading a criticism in a morning paper on his probable action, 
reversed his decision, drew his pen through the record he had 
made, and announced that "after careful deliberation all night" 
he had found for the plaintiff. His mutilated record following the 
reading of the paper became known ere long. If you will examine 
the decisions of the Supreme Courts of the States and of the 
United States, you will see the trend of cowardice and the fear 
that is entertained by the justices, or some of them, of the highest 
tribunals of our land. 

Many volumes of evidence could be collated upon the 
universal cowardice of civilized humanity. Take the most familiar 
of all examples, that furnished by the increasing evils of intem- 
perance. So unpopular is this cause that it is almost impossible to 
enlist the sympathies of men of influence to aid in suppressing the 
evil; and nearly all who are working for the noble cause are those 
who have nothing to lose by their action. Clergymen try to make 
themselves believe that duty calls them to expound theoretical 
theology, instead of practical religion, and they dishonestly dodge 
the question, as do all others who have any interest to endanger by 
a public stand for right. It always happens, if you will observe, 
that every good cause is unpopular; and every noble defence of 
decency is sure to call down on the heads of its defenders the 
malignant abuse of the public. It is a sad comment on human 
nature that there never was a good man, a benefactor of mankind, 
who was not scoffed at in his day by the populace; and, since the 
art of printing was invented, no great man has lived who has not 
been maligned in type. You cannot name an American citizen of 
real greatness, from the Father of his Country down to the noblest 
of living reformers, Parkhurst, of Xew York, who has not been 
abused by the newspapers. A very wealthy man recently offered 
one million dollars as a reward for the discovery of a single excep- 
tion to this statement, and there is no prospect of its being won. 
In the face of universal abuse is universal cowardice chained to 
the black wall of fear. 

Our fourth charge relates to filth. The word is not 



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157 



used herein as it is ordinarily accepted. If the estimate were to be 
based on unclean habits, the percentage would reach about ninety- 
one. In addition to this, are morbid tastes for food and a willing 
ignorance of the laws of health that leads to physical decay. The 
body that was given to us in purity is a soil-jar, holding diseased 
organs almost as soon as we are able to control its choice. When 
the health is vigorous, it is given over to debauchery, for vitality 
expends itself in vice. While evidence may be easily accumulated 
in any direction, it is sufficient to cite the following facts gathered 
from typical cases. Graduates of some of the leading universities 
of the United States were comparing notes on the morality of 
life at such places, and they agreed that representative young man- 
hood was found there; meaning that the best phase of morality 
was reflected in university association. They then proceeded to 
show the low percentage of morals encountered there. It became 
apparent that the humbler colleges were less given to the filthy 
vices than were the greater ones; due, perhaps, to their isolation 
and, in some degree, to the less civilized rank of the students, for 
the best virtues are found in the middle walks of life. 

A graduate of the University of which it was said by a 
prominent lady of New York, that she would rather send her son 

to hell than to , stated that his observation while at that 

institution for four years convinced him that all but about three, 
per cent, of the students were regular debauchees. A graduate of 
a great university in the West declared that every student in the 
college was intemperate; and, as far as he could judge, was con- 
stantly addicted to debauchery. All the graduates referred to 
confirmed the statement that university life was, at the present 
day, in the great institutions, a four years' course of filthy habits. 
To ascertain how far the claim could be substantiated, a careful 
investigation has been made in most of these ultra-prominent uni- 
versities. The first matter that arrests the attention is the army 
of prostitutes that settle down around the life of the students; in 
one case, there being three fallen women to each and every young 
man there. The next is the popularity of intoxication. In 
a certain university the students are placed in special danger on 
this account, and applications for liquor licenses are signed by 
professors, including the clergy. We find that the safest colleges 
to which young men may be sent are not the greatest; nor is the 
finest education obtainable in the most famous schools. It is often 



158 



IMMORTALITY 



argued that debauchery is not filth; that it is nature taking its 
usual course: but God has stamped it as filth in that He punishes 
it with loathsome diseases. A prominent physician, who practices 
in this special line among university students, told us that a sur- 
prisingly large number of the young men were suffering from the 
nasty effects of this the nastiest of all disorders, and that he wit- 
nessed the wedding of a bright gentleman graduate whose bones 
were at the time rotting from syphilis. He added, "I do not know 
what the habits of students were before: but since I have practiced 
among them I have never known one to go pure to his wife in 
after life. Added to the sin, is the loathsome character of the 
disease that the university graduate carries with him to his wed- 
ding bed." Any person who indignantly denies these facts is 
invited to go upon the ground where they exist, and to withhold 
judgment until something more than belief is obtained. "I do 
not believe it," is proof positive of a dishonest mind, in a case of 
this sort. 

Our fifth charge involves the great percentage of people of 
criminal instincts. We can cite one hundred thousand facts; yet 
where and how shall we begin? "I do not believe people are so 
bad as some pretend," said a very evenly balanced lady as she 
attempted to drink a glass of Potomac water in the city of Wash- 
ington. "If, instead of hunting for facts against the human race, 
you tried to benefit it by improving the drinking water here, you 
would be in much better business. What makes this water so 
muddy?" she continued. — "The city of Washington has a very 
poor water supply?" — "Well, cannot the nation afford to have 
pure water in its capital?" — "Yes, it appropriated a fabulous sum 
of money for such purpose; but the Lydecker tunnel scheme robbed 
the people of it all." — "What was that scheme?" — "Why, the 
purpose of Congress was to have a magnificent conduit or water 
tunnel, capable of bringing a full supply of pure water to all the 
people of the city, in place of the mud which they now drink. The 
contracts were made, and sub-contracts arranged; and a large 
number of people conspired together to put up a sham tunnel. 
More than a million dollars was fraudulently divided among busi- 
ness men and 'jobbers/ for which the people received nothing in 
return. Hundreds of men, supposed to be honest, must have 
known of this crime, or it could not have been possible. Lydecker, 
a fancy army officer, was appointed to superintend the contractors 



A BLACK CHAPTER 



159 



and secure honest work: but, instead of attending to his duties, he 
was with clubmen, card players and wine drinkers/' 7 — "Where is 
the tunnel now?" — ''Where it was then left, in a state of in- 
completion, a two million dollar monument to the combined dis- 
honesty of hundreds of persons."' — "Were not the rascals pun- 
ished?" — "Lydecker was deprived of his salary as an army officer 
for a while." — "The men who let these criminals go unpunished 
were as guilty as the perpetrators of the crime," said the lady. — 
"Madam, we can show you thousands of such cases where the 
people have been robbed by contractors, business men, and political 
'jobbers/ and yet the guilty men are left untouched.''* — Some time 
afterward this same lady wrote us, "I am convinced that there are 
too many criminals in the world to bring criminals to justice/* 

It is useless to expand these pages into the volume that 
would be necessary to even enter upon the threshold of this proof. 
Criminal instincts may prevail, though curbed by fear or policy; 
and the fact that prison bars have not closed down on the liberty 
of the culprits is not evidence of their innocence. There are too 
many guilty persons to hope for the operation of the law. It is 
by crimes, if cheating, lying, defrauding and falsely pretending 
are crimes, that nearly all the wealth of the rich men has been 
obtained. Many a National bank, and State bank, and private 
bank, is defying the criminal law to-day. You may select any you 
please by pure accident, and we assure you that an investigation 
will show crime, if hazarding the money of depositors contrary to 
the penal code is a crime. If you deal with real estate men you can 
be bitten as severely as you please when you relax your vigilance. 
A locomotive engineer, after forty years of faithful service on the 
road, wished to retire to farm life, and sought the aid of a real 
estate firm to secure him a good piece of property. This firm 
found a farm that suited him, on their representations of its rich- 
ness and value. They then purchased it of the owner for eight 
hundred dollars, having the deed made to a young man in their 
employ, who deeded it to the engineer for live thousand dollars. 
The farm was found to be a worthless tract of sand, with here 
and there a spot of fertility, which the real estate men played 
upon in their representations. In many cities and towns the 
dealers in real estate, being men of wealth, and holding shaky 
titles to certain lands, offer warranty deeds; and, when each bargain 
is consummated, they deed the property by quit claim to some 



160 



IMMORTALITY 



worthless clerk, who in turn makes the warranty deed. This re- 
leases the dealers, and the clerk is always too poor to pay losses. 
In one case, however, a thriving firm had sold more than one 
hundred of these shaky titles: and the clerk, who was the "go- 
between," happening to come into a fortune, lost it all in suits to 
make good his warranty deeds. 

These examples are selected at random ; and show that, 
whatever way we turn, the same instincts are discoverable. As we 
have said, it is impossible to punish crime except in isolated cases; 
for the saturation of wickedness is so thorough that it is the old 
story of the time of Christ: let him that is without sin cast the first 
stone. They are all silent. It may not be known that eleven 
hundred thousand men and women are engaged in the business 
of producing or selling intoxicants in this country. This is an 
enormous proportion for one line of pursuit. All such persons are 
barred from church membership; and, in most cases, from affilia- 
tion in the great lodges, societies and organizations of the country. 
That the business is criminal per se is proved by the fact that it 
is watched, hounded and curbed by the law of every State in the 
Union, for the reason that it is the cause of ninety per cent, of 
all crimes and offences. Yet it is continually growing, for it has 
the support of the press in return for profitable advertising con- 
tracts; and this support is used to cast ridicule upon temperance 
reformers whose courage is soon turned to cowardice by such shafts. 

If one sign more than another points to the collapse of 
morality in the near future, it is this rapidly spreading ridicule of 
reformers. Even the name is made nauseating to the public by 
the press, the liquor men, the horse-racing men, the gamblers and 
the million prostitutes that urge the papers on. Good people are 
thus influenced; for those who would like to see the evils sup- 
pressed, are themselves made timid by the sneers that the great 
public are learning to cast at the remnant of earnest reformers. 
We hear them denounce the growing dangers; yet, in the same 
breath, they declare that they have no use for "reformers;" thus 
showing that the purpose of press, gamblers and prostitutes has 
been accomplished. The moral classes are subdued; and the fear- 
ful evils march on. 

In one racing season in the United States, three hundred 
and ten men and women, mostly men, committed suicide on ac- 
count of losses at the race-track; and nine hundred or more became 



A BLACK CHAPTER 



161 



thieves and embezzlers in order to obtain the money necessary for 
carrying on the betting; yet fashionable women attended the races, 
gambled freely, and were praised by the city newspapers. It is 
only during the past few years that horse-race gambling has ob- 
tained a secure foothold in America, and as it has steadily increased, 
suicides and embezzlements have likewise gained in numbers. With 
every evil element actively encouraging it, while the moral classes 
are subdued through the ridicule of the press, it is certain that 
gambling will spread rapidly, and its increasing numbers of vic- 
tims will keep the columns of the sensational papers filled with 
preferred news — suicides, murders and polite crimes. More than 
this, the newspapers are constantly instructing their readers, and 
especially the 3'outh, in the methods of committing crime. Pic- 
tures have appeared showing them how to open safes, break into 
houses, rob and kill, and escape detection. 

The sixth charge is involved in the other five ; yet has 
some phases peculiarly its own. Meanness is almost universal. 
There are ten thousand avenues of proof, and an unlimited number 
besides. Any one of these will suffice to furnish an example. Gos- 
sip is prevalent among ninety-nine per cent, of the total popula- 
tion, and it is always mean and contemptible. The things said 
are false, even when closest to truth. It is wicked to say them; 
but the mind is so deficient that gossiping cannot be suppressed. 
There is not a village, town or small city, where the most cruel 
accusations are not daily hurled at innocent men and women, on 
no pretense whatever; and, in the large cities, the family circle 
opens the way to coteries of maligners, while every boarding-house 
is a hotbed of scandal. Look in another direction for meanness; 
it does not matter where: the evidence will be forthcoming. Let 
us, as though by accident, take that relationship where, of all 
iu stances, we would expect to find the least exhibition of mean- 
ness — family ties and kinship. Here are blood curdling tales of 
hatred, fend, jealous}', and ostracism. It is said that meanness is 
never so rank as when it crops out among relatives. A large pro- 
portion of law cases are founded upon such quarrels. We can name 
two hundred families where feuds to the end of life are in hearty 
progress; and it seems that a very large per cent, of all persons are 
estranged from their relatives by some form of antagonism. When 
death cuts off one who is beloved, the heirs descend like harpies, 
and proceed to dissect each other in the effort to pick the bones of 



162 IMMORTALITY 

the testator. This kind of meanness is liable to crop out at any 
time, and from the least expected sources. So we might go on for- 
ever repeating the unpleasant tale. 

Our black chapter has been devoted largely to the moral 
classes, to show the skeleton beneath the skin. Darker than they, 
more ugly than the polite and unrecorded criminals, are the openly 
branded violators of law and decency; the slums, the vagabonds, 
the loafers, the dwellers in "dives," the vicious haters of humanity. 
There are three million tramps in this country, who will not work 
and will not wash. One-tenth of them may be found in New 
York City any year. They are not the unfortunate men who can- 
not find work, but they are sunken, desperate thieves, whose exist- 
ence places a stigma on honest though unemployed toil. They 
defy the law; they batter at your doors, demanding food for noth- 
ing but menaces; they steal at every opportunity, sometimes boldly 
before your eyes; they assail and even murder in their cool, brazen, 
uncaring manner; insulting, dirty and filthy. 

There is a vast underground city life that is appalling 
and shameful. It wallows and steams with putrefaction. You 
go down the stairs, which are wet and decayed with filth, and at 
the bottom you find the poor victims on the floor cold, sick, three- 
fourths dead, slinking into a still darker corner under the gleam 
of the lantern of the police. There has not been a breath of fresh 
air in that room for five years, literally. There they are — men, 
women, children; blacks, whites; Mary Magdalene without her 
repentance, and Lazarus without his God. These are the "dives" 
into which the pickpockets and the thieves go, as well as a great 
many who would like a different life, but cannot get it. These 
places are the sores of the city which bleed perpetual corruption. 
They are the underlying volcano that threatens us with a Caracas 
earthquake. It rolls and roars, and surges and heaves, and rocks 
and blasphemes and dies. And there are only two outlets for it — 
the police court and the potter's field. In other words, they must 
either go to prison or to hell. 

You may divide the population into two great classes of 
society; the upper and the lower; ten per cent, of humanity in the 
upper and ninety per cent, in the lower; the latter looking with 
envy and jealous eye upon the former; all the polite and unpun- 
ished criminals in the ten per cent., and all the thugs, slugs, cut- 
throats and slimy-handed desperadoes in the ninety per cent. Sup- 



A BLACK CHAPTER 



163 



pressed by fear the tornado of passion is held in check; uncurbed 
and set loose by an idea, the peaceable classes become clamorous 
for blood. In a western city, whose populace to a man advocated 
certain political theories, a vote was unanimously passed declaring 
that if an opposing candidate was elected President of the United 
States, he should be assassinated before his term of office expired; 
and a committee of assassination was publicly elected. In another 
city a lecturer, who happened to express his honest views upon a 
matter in a mild but convincing way, not knowing that they were 
in conflict with the pet opinions of the place, was publicly shot 
while speaking, and the entire audience, including men, women 
and children, insulted the dead body. In canvassing the city for 
the real feeling of the people, after the excitement had died down, 
it was found that even the supposed refined classes believed that 
the man had met his just fate; yet the very worst offence he had 
committed was a quiet and perfectly harmless sentence that con- 
tained no word of ill nature. It needs only an idea sometimes to 
turn a peaceful people into malignant demons. The mobs of all 
ages and all countries bear witness to the devilish malice that 
sits enthroned in the human heart; or, seething and compressed, 
bides its time of action. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



DEATH. 



[ 626 ] 




'HE wages of sin is death. 

This is the 626th Ralston Principle. It presents a law, 
immutable and eternal. 



A review of the preceding chapter will serve to empha- 
size the fact that man is not the goal of creation. If any one 
challenges the statements embodied in the chapter, it must be done 
on belief, and not on knowledge: and the challenge would lack 
honest}'. The true student will note the difference carefully main- 
tained between the commission of a wrong and the disposition to 
commit one; between the unrecorded criminal and the criminal 
heart; between the veneer of goodness and the dirty skin of evil. 
An illustration of the latter is seen in the following experiment 
made to ascertain the realism of morality. Mr. A. spent four nights 
in the week in a gambling den; Mr. B., by his cleverness, robbed a 
widow of her home; Mr. C. borrowed money on false pretenses; 
Mr. D. sold to an innocent customer a certain machine that had a 
latent defect of which he knew, and which the customer would not 
ascertain for some time, when considerable damage would be 
caused; Mr. E. ran for office, and secretly gave orders to buy beer 
and whiskey with which to bribe voters; Mr. F. attended the races, 
and lost, in betting, the money that had been entrusted to him to 
pay the interest on his mortgaged home; Mr. G. swore a streak of 
blue profanity on Saturday night; Mr. H. purchased a sensational 
Sunday paper, and spent the early hours of this holy day of rest 
in storing his mind and nervous system with the vilest trash and 
muddiest, nastiest sewerage that ever flowed out of the human 
carcase; Mrs. I. devoted more time during the week in gossiping 
about her neighbors than she gave to her household duties; Mrs. 
J. was absorbed in reading an obscene novel, while her child was 
allowed to overturn a kettle of scalding water upon its legs; Mrs. 
K. scolded, ranted, stormed and nagged her husband until he was 
glad to get rest in a bar-room; Mrs. L. heard a salacious lie con- 

(104) 



DEATH 



165 



cerning the virtue of a beautiful young lady, and this vinegary 
female spent night and clay going from house to house peddling the 
falsehood and adding mountains to it as she went; Mrs. M. strapped 
her little child to a bed-post, and tortured its spine out of shape, 
all because it was too young to understand the wishes of its devil- 
mother; Mrs. 1ST. struck her three-year old boy with a rolling pin, 
and maimed him for life; Mrs. 0. whipped her children until their 
screams brought in the neighbors; Mrs. P. berated the choir with 
blackguard terms because her daughter was not qualified to sing, 
and was therefore invited to aid the church in other ways; and Mrs. 
Q., a delightful old lady of sixty-five, with white hair and laughing 
spit-curls, fomented a quarrel between her daughter and the daugh- 
ter's husband, and discharged so many guns of malice that the 
hitherto happy couple separated in hopeless estrangement, all 
because this old lady insisted on visiting them three hundred and 
sixty-five days in the year and turning their parlor into a paint 
studio, which she filled with bad smells, vile smoke from an old 
jjipe, and a nasty vocabulary. 

Now came Sunday on, with its good cheer and blessed 
jjeace. The air and sky were filled with the perfumes of divine 
fragrance. The sun beamed on home and church. The trees 
were full of song, of twittering chatter, and rustling merriment, as 
though they vied with the happy clangor of the bells. The good 
people were astir, the late breakfasts were hurried by, the neat 
attire donned, and the worshipping multitude wended their way 
to church; sober, serious, solemn and sedate. When Mr. A. came 
in with bowed head and stooping shoulders, his piety shed a 
radiant exaltation through the place. Mr. B.'s step was firm, his 
chin high, and his new-shaven face aglow with peace, although the 
wronged widow was at home kneeling by her bedside and writhing 
in pitiful prayer for release from her bondage of despair. Mr. C. 
shook hands with the janitor and two small boys, and tiptoed down 
the aisle as though his presence added to the sanctity of the oc- 
casion. Mr. P. was full of smiles, rich and benignant, as he greeted 
all whom he met. When Mr. E. came in, the pastor thanked the 
Lord for so great and good a man at his right hand. Mr. F. was 
quiet but impressive. Mr. G. exhaled an air of forgiveness on all 
around; and Mr. II. showed plainly in his features that he had a 
profound contempt for sin and sinners. The ladies hereinbefore 
mentioned all came in o-ood season: each looking at some imaginary 



166 



IMMORTALITY 



hole in the atmosphere, with dreamy, tear-stained eyes and severe 
serenity. It was a scene of profound contemplation. A iSTew 
York drummer, sitting in the gallery, looked down on the worship- 
pers in admiration for their holy demeanor, although he had cer- 
tain inexplainable misgivings about Mr. D. as a safe man to trade 
with. When prayers came, Mr. A., Mr. B., Mr. C, Mr. D., Mr. E., 
Mr. F., Mr. G-., Mr. IT., Mrs. I., Mrs. J., Mrs. K., Mrs. L., Mrs. M., 
Mrs. Mrs. 0., Mrs. P. and Mrs. Q., all knelt and breathed 
fervent ''aniens'' at the proper times. At the end of the services 
there was a general handshaking, a wiping away of pious tears, a 
bemoaning of sin, a flattering of the pastor, a solemn attitudinizing 
for effect, and the white-haired old lady with laughing spit-curls 
was the lioness of the hour. Strangers were introduced to her; 
the bland and peaceful smile that sat on her face like a twilight 
sky upon a placid lake, shone such goodness on all around that the 
universal verdict was: "She is divine." 

The foregoing description is not exaggeration. It is true 
to the life, and its truth may be confirmed again and again if an 
honest investigator cares to perform the real labor of ascertaining 
the facts. It is the old story of veneer; the filmy covering of good- 
ness spread over the uncleanliness of evil. It does not make the 
influence of the Church less potent; but simply affirms that the 
percentage of sincere worshippers is grossly exaggerated. The 
home life gives a lie to the honesty of religious profession, and 
pronounces the latter often a sham and a pretense. There is a 
small quota of true souls in every church; an average of three per 
cent. Thus history repeats itself. There is no reason why the 
proportion should be larger to-day than it was in the old Bible 
times; and if you wish to know what real religious backsliding 
meant, consult those pages of truth. The chosen people of God, 
as the Bible tells us a thousand times, deserted His standard, 
through all the ages; and the. great bulk of sacred history is de- 
voted to the accounts of their defections. 

The moral is plain. The black chapter, and the inauspi- 
cious opening of this, are not as bad as they appear on first reading. 
The meaning is everywhere visible. We simply learn that this era, 
of which six thousand years have been consumed, is the human 
period. To be human is to be imperfect. Xo man and no woman 
has been without sin. To live in a state of moral cleanliness is 
near to an impossibility: though attainable under a combination of 



DEATH 



167 



favoring circumstances. The supposed purity that parades itself 
throughout the world is a veneer; while, on the other hand, the 
open challenge of decency is borne under the standard of thugs, 
thieves, cutthroats and murderers. This is the human race of to- 
day; the sum total of the best and most moral of all ages in the 
calendar of history. 

The wages of sin is death. This is the declaration of the 
Bible, often reiterated and enforced; and no sophistry of modern 
theology that seeks to twist the proclamation, has been able to rob 
it of its meaning. We believe it as it was uttered; and we find a 
startling confirmation of it in the story of life as told by the great 
facts of the past and present. The wages of sin is death. It is the 
eternal law. Xo man, no effort, no circumstance, no power of 
will, no deceit, no power, can change it. It is the eternal, im- 
mutable law of the universe. The wages of sin is death. It is 
written in the very constitution of the world. It is written in 
every bleared and seared conscience. It speaks from the ruins of 
Babylon and T}Te. The broken arches and the ruined temples of 
Greece and Koine are monuments to it. It has existed at all times 
and at all places — it has been insuperable, invincible. God Him- 
self cannot change it. The sun may cease to shine, the stars fall, 
but as long as there is a moral being in the universe the moral law 
will hold, and crimes done in the pitchy darkness of the night, 
when no human eyes can see them, shall be punished. 

The word death has two meanings : one refers to the 
end of the individual organism with all its matter, vitality and 
mind; the other refers to the return of these departments of life 
to their respective funds, without giving birth to an immortal soul. 
In the case of the first death, nothing is lost; in the case of the 
second death, all is lost. That there is a fund of matter is self- 
apparent. When the rat dies, its flesh goes to rejoin this fund. 
That there is a fund of vitality, is true from necessity. When the 
rat's vitality is freed, it has no place to which it can go, unless to 
a fund. If no such fund exists, we must then fall back upon the 
old pagan philosophy of the transmigration of the souls of all ani- 
mals, including cats, dogs, vermin and every species of lower life. 
This we cannot accept. 

That the rat has vitality is well known. That this vitality 
is not of a chemical nature is easily proved; for no action, quality 
or power of chemical vitality is able of itself to create or produce 



168 



IMMORTALITY 



life. That which is chemical may be easily separated, and restored 
to its previous, or to new, combinations, without loss or injury; 
but that which is vital is so absolutely dependent upon a power 
beyond human experiment that a separation, or suspension, or in- 
terruption of its course means death: from which no restoration is 
possible. Once the glass pitcher is melted and destroyed, its parts 
may be saved and brought back to a new glass pitcher. Once the 
rat is destroyed, its parts may be saved, but the escaped vitality is 
gone. This is the death of the rat. As nothing perishes, the parts 
are not subject to death, but the individual is disposed of forever. 
If it had memory; if it had the power of retrospection; if, upon that 
power of retrospection, it was able to found the related power of 
contemplation, and make its plans for some future moment, it has 
been deprived of such pleasure; and never, in this or in any other 
phase of existence, will it witness the fulfilment of its plans. So 
far it has suffered loss. 

Vitality is a general condition as nearly resembling elec- 
tricity as one thiug can resemble another and yet be separate from 
it. In so many respects are these two funds alike that chapters 
might be written describing them; but other books have been set 
apart for their study, notably the works on Personal Magnetism 
and Higher Magnetism. A summary of the points of resemblance, 
as far as they seem important in this investigation, may be of 
interest. 

1. Vitality is a life-fluid; electricity is a fluid. 

2. Vitality is free; electricity is free. 

3. Vitality is a free fund; electricity is a free fund. 

4. Vitality may be collected and held in a battery; electricity 
may be collected and held in a battery. 

5. Every human body contains vital cells, each cell being 
called a ganglion, devoted exclusively to the purpose of retaining 
vitality; electricity is so collected and retained in jars or cells. 

6. The vitality in these cells may be strong or weak, and 
human life and health are dependent upon such condition; an 
electric battery may likewise be strong or weak, and the machinery 
it runs will be dependent upon such condition. 

7. The human body as an electrical machine is said to be 
paralyzed when the vitality of its cells is insufficient to move its 
parts; so any machinery dependent upon a storage battery may be 
likewise paralyzed. 



DEATH 



169 



8. The vitality of the human body is drawn from its cells to 
its machinery, known as muscles and bones, by wires that act as 
conductors of the fluid; electricity is likewise drawn from its source 
to its use by wires or other conductors. In the body these wires are 
known as nerves. 

9. A current of vitality runs from the cells or ganglia, exactly 
as a current of electricity runs from its cells, and with the same 
speed: and the nerves are established for no other purpose than to 
act as conductors of this fluid. 

10. The degree of vitality in the human body may be lessened 
by its general escape through dampness, or other foreign con- 
ductors, causing serious results. All colds are caught by a reduc- 
tion of vitality through such loss. It is well known that electrical 
machinery is affected by dampness and other foreign conductors, 
such as rain, fogs and moisture. 

11. Vitality is drawn into the body by the attraction of life, 
from an apparently inexhaustible fund. Electricity seems to come 
likewise from such a fund. 

12. When the vitality escapes, either by use or upon a col- 
lapse of the body, it goes to its fund. Electricity goes to its fund 
likewise when it escapes either by use or collapse. It is not known 
that these funds are alike, or are one and the same. 

It cannot be claimed that, upon the death of a man, his 
vitality is separately preserved; nor can it be claimed that electricity 
once used is kept apart and prevented from going into service 
again. In the deaths of millions of individuals of animal life every 
hour, a vast volume of vitality is set free; and no thoughtful person 
pretends to believe that this escaped life is sent off to the sky. 
The very essentials of its existence require it to remain where it 
does, in and about the matter of the earth. In the millions of 
deaths hourly, there is a volume of vitality that has been used 
over and over again, probably millions of times, since it was un- 
reeled from the great source of supply in the sun. It is thus clear 
that the two funds, those of matter and vitality, are common to all 
life. Man's body is made from the same material as the rat's. 
The cells of protoplasm are the same. In each cell is the vital 
spark, and it is this spark that escapes, as well in one case as in the 
other. It is even true that the protoplasmic cells of the tree or 
plant are exactly the same as those in the brute species or in man; 
and the vitality which is carried in each cell is the same. That 



170 



IMMORTALITY 



all such life originates in one and the same common fund is too 
apparent to need discussion. 

Any student or any thinking person who will read these 
pages carefully, will he firmly convinced of these important truths. 
It has always heen accepted as a self-evident fact that the tree, 
plant, brute and human being derive the material for their physical 
parts from a general fund of matter common to all. This was ad- 
mitted because its proof was tangible, and lay at the feet of every 
observer. That there was another department of life, apart from 
matter, was clearly understood; and this was called vitality. At 
first it seemed too mysterious to be subjected to explanation; but 
every ray of light showed the finally demonstrated fact that vitality, 
like matter, had a fund of its own, from which all life came, and to 
which it went. On no other theory can existence, as it is, be ac- 
counted for; and the assumption is now no more a theory than is 
the claim that our bodies are built from a common fund of matter. 
Both are facts. 

To understand this fund we have only to look at its close 
relative, electricity. If we were to depend upon the chemist to tell 
us of what electricity consists, he would be at a loss to give any 
information on the subject. As far as analysis goes, there is no 
such thing as electricity. Yet if we enter the power-house in a 
large city where a tremendous volume of this fluid is used every 
moment for the heavy work of transportation, we may obtain a 
clearer idea of what is meant by a fund. Hundreds of cars are 
running over tracks that radiate in all directions. Giant engines 
are working to produce a subtle current, to send out along these 
many miles of track, in order that thousands of tons of freight, 
dead and living, may be rapidly carried hither and thither to their 
various destinations. From the air of one room this powerful force 
is gathered by the simplest of all processes — friction; and the mag- 
nificent enginery with its complement of heavy machinery is 
spending all its genius upon nothing but air; scraping, rasping, 
rubbing and wearing away, in order that something hidden some- 
where in the air may be excited and drawn forth. 

Any boy or girl could do the same thing ; and many young 
experimenters have scraped electricity out of the air; for there 
alone is it voluminous. The child that rubs a comb through his 
hair obtains exactly the same fluid, in small quantity. Let the 
comb and the hair be larger, with the friction increased, and 



DEATH 



171 



the quantity will grow in volume. In the very same room, let 
machinery be introduced, and the supply comes in enormous quan- 
tities. Add more machines, and increase their size; let all the 
processes be conducted on a gigantic scale, and yet the supply con- 
tinues. It seems inexhaustible. Where is it? In the air. What, 
are all the powerful currents of electricity that are needed to run 
thousands of cars, to be found in one room? Yes; and when the 
cars are crowded with passengers even to the last inch of space at 
the closing hour of daily toil; when the loads are doubled and 
tripled; when heaw grades and hard curves are met, and ordinary 
effort would fail, these same friction-producing engines, brushing 
the live fluid out of the atmosphere, will yet gather volume suf- 
ficient to cope with the emergencies, and the current will respond 
nobly to the demand. It all comes forth from one room, out of 
that mysterious fund of energy whose dwelling place is ubiquitous. 

The fund of animal vitality is just the same as that which 
we have described, though not necessarily identical with it. There 
are cogent reasons for believing that the vitality that supports all 
life is the same fund that furnishes the electric current; but we 
are not prepared at this time to go thoroughly into that matter. 
It is sufficient to say that, if there are two funds, they closely re- 
semble each other; and that the need of separate funds, in this uni- 
verse of economy, is hard to understand. There is no difference 
between the source of supply for the animal and vegetable king- 
doms, for each cell carries its vitality, and the same cells that build 
the body of animal life must first have entered into the existence 
of some form of vegetation. The fund is, therefore, one and the 
same, 

Death, in one sense of the word, is the escape of the 
vitality of an individual, followed by the return of the vitality to 
its fund; and the return of the material to its fund. The same 
energy never exists again as a separate entity; no more than the 
same collection of matter exists as a separate body. In the com- 
mingling with its great source of supply, each has disappeared. 
This is the death that is being enacted by the millions every hour; 
and yet not one particle of matter or vitality perishes; nothing is 
lost. Both reappear in new combinations, and the chances are 
decidedly small that even the slightest portion of the same matter 
will ever again meet any of the same vitality in the same organism. 

Death by this process occurs in two forms : first, in the 



172 IMMORTALITY 

momentary loss of matter and vitality; second, by the collapse of 
both. In other words, it is decreed from the beginning of life that 
it must die. The most healthful process of living is that which 
keeps this change normally active. Use of the faculties and func- 
tions of the body hastens the departure of matter and of vitality, 
in order that a continuous new supply may ever take the place of 
the old. If you will analyze the excretions of the body for a single 
day, you will find that appreciable quantities of the flesh, bones 
muscles, nerves, and brain even, have died. The law of life tells 
us that what dies slowly day by day, is exactly what dies suddenly 
all at once; yet the first we call living, and the second we call death. 
One is change, by which the dead material is removed in order to 
make place for the new; the other is collapse, which admits no new 
supply. In one case the fire burns and is renewed as the ashes 
are removed; in the other case the fire goes out, and the dead refuse 
is all that remains. Coal, without the energy of the flame, must 
suffer collapse; and the flame without the coal must come to its 
death. Even chemical vitality never perishes. It reappears in 
some form. The same is true of physics; the loss of one energy is 
the source of another. 

That the material portions of our bodies must die is 
clearly seen, for they are dying every moment of life, and they fall 
to pieces by collapse. There is not one particle of matter in your 
body to-day that was there a few years ago; and we will guarantee, 
beyond all possibility of doubt, that you are carrying at this mo- 
ment some of the flesh particles of men and women who have died 
since George Washington was President of the United States. That 
the vitality of our bodies must die is equally true, for it is oozing 
out and away in every act of life, and leaves at final dissolution as 
a fire goes out. You have none of the vitality that you had last 
year, no more than the electricity that runs along the wire to-day 
to feed your lamp is the same that supplied it yesterday. Thus 
change, interchange, and collapse are deaths. 

But to the aspirant for eternity there is another death 
that is more to be dreaded than dissolution. It is the death of the 
soul. Before we speak of the birth or origin of that life, we must 
accept it as granted that there is such a possibility, no matter in 
what form it may appear, whether as an existence dating from the 
past, or as an existence to follow the death of each and every body; 
or as a life to which, by a species of graduation, certain persons are 



DEATH 



173 



to be admitted for merit. If, as many claim, this life ends all, it 
will agree with the third of the foregoing declarations; or if, as 
others claim, the soul is a part of this life, it will agree with the 
first of the declarations; and if, as still others think, the soul life 
follows earthly existence, it will agree with the second proposition. 
We thus start with an assent to everybody's claims; in this state 
of the argument all are of one mind, though it seems strange that 
it is so easy to find harmony of views. 

In any event the awful climax of oblivion for the soul- 
part of man, or the terrible fate of a soulless hereafter, must face 
us here and now. Our theme tells us that the wages of sin is 
death. This does not mean the collapse of matter or of vitality, 
for every man and woman must suffer such change; but it very 
clearly means that a soulless hereafter is the penalty of sin . There 
is no other real death. This law puts an end to all problems of 
future opportunities in some after life. Either the decree is true 
or false. It cannot be compromised. If it is true, it refers to the 
sin of this life, not to the expiating of such sin in some inter- 
mediate life to act as a shield from the soul's death hereafter. 
Therefore sin in the present existence means a soulless eternity, — 
or oblivion, nothingness. There is nothing in this law that con- 
flicts with the religion of the old or the new dispensations, of the 
Hebrew or Christian faith, but it rather accords with them. 

From our present viewpoint we propose to examine this 
law in its application to the other principles thus far presented. 
We have seen clearly the steady progress of the earth out of the 
crudest conditions up to the present period, by successive steps, 
each a decided advance over all others; and we ha\ r e intimated that 
the last step has not yet been taken. In other words, the period 
in which we live, and which is about six thousand years old, is not 
the final era of the earth's history. The reasons for this belief 
are many, too numerous in fact to be set forth in this chapter. 
The most potent of all is the state of incompleteness and imperfec- 
tion everywhere apparent. To say that the earth has come to its 
best condition is like saying that a master-builder, capable of con- 
structing a perfected ship, has deserted the product of his ambition 
at that stage of the work when it needs but one more touch to 
bring it to completion. 



CHAPTER XIX. 



NATURALNESS OF EVIL. 

[ ~^~ ] 




^HE psychozoic period is the era of sin. 

This is the 627th Ralston Principle. It sets forth a fact, 
and stamps its coincidence with the logical progression of 



existence, since the first recorded annals of this planetary 
life. From, shell-life to fish was a decided leap in development; 
from fish to amphibians was another; from amphibians to reptiles, 
another; from reptiles to mammals, another; from mammals to 
the brute-savage, another; from the brute-savage to savage human- 
ity, or the barbarian, another; but to take a leap from the bar- 
barian to a perfected and sinless man, would create a chasm in the 
scale of development that has not been equaled in the widest in- 
tervals of all the wide past. 

About six thousand years ago the present or psychozoic 
period began, with Caucasian man as the new production. This 
is confirmed at every turn of investigation; and, in all these sixty 
centuries, not one fact, hint, or suggestion has appeared to the 
contrary. Preceding this Caucasian era was the barbaric epoch, 
the remnants of which are yet seen in the Mongols, Egyptians, 
and other races, including the almost exterminated American In- 
dian. Preceding the barbaric epoch was that of the brute-savage, 
wherein is presented the race of the so-called primeval man; and 
from this remote predecessor we find remnants, in appearance only, 
in the lowest tribes now dwelling on the earth. These are steps 
in progress. We are in the full tide of the psychozoic era, almost 
at high-water mark. That there is meaning in this, we shall see. 

A glance at this period is necessary in this stage of our 
study. It is called psychozoic because it is the age in which mind 
predominates in the highest types of life; it is an era of mental 
supremacy. Of this there is no doubt. So much is taught to-day, 
and there is so much to learn, that men have been driven to lines of 
study aud experiment. Few, if any minds attempt to acquire a 
complete mastery of the written knowledge on all matters, as was 

(174) 



NATURALNESS OF EVIL 



175 



the case some time ago; for now there is too much to learn, and 
the individual seeks special channels of information, in which he 
is, even now, likely to be overwhelmed. The advantage of being 
driven in one direction is seen in the excessive acquisition of knowl- 
edge in a special line; in the advances, discoveries and inventions 
made under the force of mental concentration. As a result, the 
mind rides on the crest of higher waves. 

That we are near high water mark is probable, for ulti- 
mate limits now confront us. The best microscopes are not as 
good as the inferior instruments; for they take us to that barrier 
where a ray of light is not useful in the study of matter. A magni- 
fying power of two thousand diameters seems to find the light too 
coarse for observation, leaving the object in a blur; while a power 
of five hundred diameters is better, for it enables light to convey 
the outlines of the object to the eye. This tells us that the secrets 
locked up in the recesses of minuteness are hidden forever against 
psychozoic man. Then, too, the other extreme presents a limit. 
Try ever so hard, the astronomer is handicapped by distance and 
immensity in his search after a knowledge of the sky. The few 
facts that he has gathered are of no use whatever in the struggle 
to ascertain what the universe is, or why it exists. The learned 
specialist has come to believe that all the sky is as we see it; that 
suns and systems, orbs and satellites, are everywhere to be found, 
even if the whole heavens could be pierced. The little satisfac- 
tion that is obtainable from the most learned investigation serves 
but to aggravate the mind in its intense thirst for more knowledge. 
It is safe to say that psychozoic man will never penetrate this 
barrier, nor will he ever solve the mystery of space. It is reserved 
for another era. 

The secrets of the nucleus in the protoplasmic cell are 
locked up against the man of the present period. It is not for 
him to know. Yet in that one chamber is contained the whole 
story of creation. In the composition of that nucleus is the image 
of God. The immense proportions of the earth's architecture 
through the countless ages of the past, and the scheme of the un- 
revealed future, are miniatured in that tomb. The eye of divinity 
that is large enough to compass the confines of space far beyond 
the reach of the noblest telescope, is small enough to prick open the 
kernel of this jewelled case, and lay bare its wealth of secrecy. But 
man writhes in vain at his helplessness in the presence of the most 



176 



IMMORTALITY 



splendid consummation of his inventions. This is another of the 
limitations that hold him to the wall of ignorance. 

We hear the present age spoken of as one of many great 
inventions; but, if you will examine them, you will find that the 
best discoveries serve only to add to his conveniences. That he 
can travel faster, send messages farther in a given time, and procure 
a better illuminating power, need not convince him that he has 
gained one step in the line of mental progress, except so far as 
mere physical conveniences are concerned. Improvements have 
been vast enough, but they have not added one ounce of happiness 
to the human being. A cushioned chair is softer than a hard 
board seat, and is said to be more comfortable; but the sickly frame 
on the elegant divan is less to be desired than the sturdy and 
hearty body in a seat of oak. A call bell is more convenient than 
the use of the voice and feet; but one invites laziness and disease, 
the other exercise and health. Still it is very clear that modern 
inventions have added much to the ease, comfort and convenience 
of humanity; but nothing else has been gained. 

Few things remain to be accomplished by psychozoic 
man. He must give up probing the impenetrable mysteries of cell 
and sky. He may confine himself to the search for the pole, with 
no result except the gratifying of a silly curiosity; but if discovered, 
the new spot on the map will not elevate the general race. He 
will yet navigate the air, *for such a proceeding is not only possible 
but feasible. The difficulties to be overcome are less than those 
which confronted the inventor of the electric motor machine a 
few years ago. The time is not far distant when the air will be- 
come a great highway of travel, as the ocean is to-day; and, with 
the exception of the improvement of conveniences for living, this 
line of invention will mark the full flood of high tide, and close 
the era. The psychozoic man will not hold communication with 
the inhabitants of other orbs, if any such exist. 

With its splendid advance over all preceding periods, 
this is yet a very imperfect epoch. It is indeed grand; fully as 
great as all the good opinions of poets and philosophers would 
make it; yet it is incomplete in itself ; and, when done, will make 
an uncompleted history. It is no wonder that humanity, the best 
of earth, the highest plane of all existence thus far, is not a work of 
perfection. We find what we would naturally expect, not a disap- 
pointment, but a simple story of deficiency, in spite of which the 



NATURALNESS OF EVIL 



177 



best of the race has made a noteworthy struggle for ideal citizen- 
ship. Nor do we think humanity is to be too severely blamed for 
its failings. What is impossible cannot be required. 

A high moral plane is not natural to the psychozoic period. 
The inspirations that suggest the yearnings for a standard of 
honesty and goodness are foretastes of the age yet to come; and the 
story of every step in the past has borne this fact upon the front 
of each advance. There has never been a leap forward that has 
not been anticipated; there has been no new era ushered in that did 
not have its forerunner. These powerful truths should be kept in 
mind as this study progresses. The predominating trait of even 
the best divisions of humanity of the present era is moral imperfec- 
tion, or sin; and this deficiency is natural to the period; but, 
through the chinks are seen moral gleams that tell the story of the 
next and, probably, the final race of earth. 

The black chapter, therefore, has its excuses. It is dark 
only by contrast with a new and better condition of life. It is 
bright in contrast with the barbarian, which, in turn, is whiteness 
compared with the hideous brute-savage of prehistoric times. You 
cannot make mankind, better than it is, except in spots. This has 
been proved again and again. In the city of London no attempt 
is made to suppress prostitution with its attendant filthy diseases, 
on the principle that the moral depravity of both sexes will find 
vent in some way, and the avenue of public shame is the least harm- 
ful. So these criminals are left to do as they please, as long as they 
injure none but themselves. The same theory governs the con- 
trol of alcoholic degradation in Great Britain. Personal liberty is 
the uppermost consideration, and the only question is one of time, 
in which depravity will slay the victim. In one of the territories 
of the United States a certain town devoted itself absolutely to 
this doctrine of personal liberty, no interference being allowed in 
the conduct of its people, except when the rights of others were too 
openly invaded. As a result, every man and boy was a drunkard, 
a beastly and disgusting victim of the evil of freedom in sin; every 
girl and woman was a prostitute, and bore the bloated marks of 
rotten diseases; every business enterprise was converted into a 
gambling den; and death swept through the place like a black 
angel of vengeance. 

Some watery-eyed devotees of fanaticism actually believe 
that the souls of those drunkards, prostitutes and gamblers went 



178 



IMMORTALIT Y 



from earth to another world, where some process of salvation was 
set in operation to fit them for a life to come. Some probably be- 
lieve that their spirits left this planet; though how is not known, 
nor to what corner of the sky is not intimated. But if there is a 
sun in Heaven, its presence on the morrow is no more certain than 
that these degraded criminals went to pieces, and their carcases fell 
putrescent into the lap of earth, while their vitality rejoined the 
general fund. That was the end of them. The wages of sin is 
death. The death that follows sin is a soulless eternity, a noth- 
ingness, an oblivion. For their sin they were not to blame, be- 
cause they are part of the psychozoic era, which is an era of im- 
perfection. Being blameless in a certain sense; being deficient in 
moral possibilities, they could not live for punishment, and they 
could not live for reward. It is the decree of nature and the voice 
of (rod that they should go back to the fund from which they came 
and new lives should come forth. This is justice. It is mercy. 

We hold that there is but one race — the Caucasians — 
that belongs to the psychozoic period; and this race was ushered 
in about six thousand years ago, at the time the present era began. 
The Caucasian is, therefore, the psychozoic race. All others now 
living are remnants or off-shoots of the preceding periods, of the 
barbarians, and of the brute-savage. The one fact that the Cau- 
casians are the only people that have made any advancement in 
civilization or in morality, is of itself sufficient to launch a severe 
rebuke upon the strained efforts of missionaries and their promul- 
gators to convert anti-racials, or remnants of other geological 
periods, to the conditions of the highest Caucasians. If the anti- 
racials were capable of improving at all, they would have given 
some evidence of it in the last sixty or ninety centuries. The fact 
that they show a slight change under stimulation is no evidence of 
an inherent progress, without which no moral growth is worth con- 
sidering. Withdraw the Caucasian stimulation, and the anti- 
racial relapses, showing that the task is a hopeless one. 

One thousand million dollars have been taken out of the 
United States alone to send abroad into pagan countries to convert 
to impossible conditions of Caucasian morality, the ugly hordes of 
barbarians and savages, who are merely remnants of older geo- 
logical periods. Xo greater popular sin has ever been committed. 
The organizations that plead for this mone}^ the men who cry their 
advocacy of the system, the ministers who collect the funds, and 



NATURALNESS OF EVIL 



179 



the people who contribute them, are false to their allegiance to 
America; they are honest but misguided traitors of the United 
States; they are sincere but mentally blighted robbers of the 
prosperity of this country. American gold is, to-day, counted by 
millions in those far away lands of barbarism and savagery. It is 
worn in ear-trinkets, nose-rings and lip ornaments among the 
worthless tribes of earth's vilest humanity. It was a dramatic 
stroke of the Creator when He sent Cain, branded with murder, 
into the land of ISTod to marry one of the descendants of prehistoric 
man, a brute-savage, an anti-racial. The act is full of warning. 

What would one thousand million dollars do for the 
people of the United States at this time? It would reclaim from 
sin, crime, degradation, poverty, ignorance and distress every boy 
and girl, every man and woman in this blessed county, who is at 
all savable. It would recreate our social institutions. It would 
build a million schoolhouses, costing one thousand dollars each, or 
as many churches, at the same average. It would do better than 
all these things: its mighty influence, expended in the best of all 
missionary work — -that which begins at home among the white 
races — would convert ten thousand Caucasians to Christianity 
where one Chinaman has yet been secured. And, in our opinion, 
one white man of our own country is worth more than fifty savages 
or cannibals of pagandom. It is far better that American gold 
should buy bread for our starving poor, than that it should be worn 
in the noses of Hottentots and Zulus. As the priest of old India 
deluded the people into giving up their substance and prosperity 
to the call of fanaticism, so the ministers who have drained one 
thousand million dollars out of the United States for converting 
the pagans to Christianity before the depraved classes of this 
country had been properly missionized, must stand at the bar of 
God as wrong-doers to His cause, and as traitors to the nation to 
whom they have sworn allegiance. We advice you to give liberally 
to the Church, to home missions and to Church extension; for the 
Church is the gate to salvation and the hope of immortality; but 
your purse should be locked tight against all contributions for 
foreign missions. Voicing this sentiment are those who have done 
■ missionary work abroad, excepting only the dishonest or deluded 
souls that cling to the evil system by design or stupidity. 

Thousands and tens of thousands of years before God 
. made man in His own image, the barbarians and the brute-savages 



180 



IMMORTALITY 



lived and died. Their bodies joined the general fnnd of matter 
from where they came; and their vital energies went back to the 
great sea of supply, as all animal creation had done and was doing. 
The same process is going on to-day. Millions are continually dy- 
ing, and returning to the general fnnd. That is their end. The 
only future is in a new remolding of matter. It is not true that 
one life passes into another. The transmigration of souls is a 
brutal suggestion. It is hard enough for man to live in the mis- 
fortunes that surround him, without having to continue his exist- 
ence in cats, dogs, horses and- other lives. Nor is it true that an 
animal goes into some other being. The claims of theosophy are 
so absurd and childish that no person not mentally warped could 
entertain them for a moment. 

The solace of the age is the fact that sin is excusable, 
because it is natural. You can mention no crime that is not a 
part of the birthright of man. The claim that conversion and 
salvation are eternal safeguards against the death that follows sin, 
is not sound, as any careful historian of human nature can prove. 
In a manufacturing city in the eastern part of Massachusetts it is 
very difficult to find an honest man or woman; yet there are thou- 
sands that claim to be converted. The papers reek with the 
wickedness that they strive to create; the professional men pride 
themselves on their dignity, and try to add integrity, but the most 
infantile of physiognomists can read fraud, cheat and sneak in every 
line of their features; the business men follow in the same strain; 
the females, with rare and beautiful exceptions, are as impure as 
they of Sodom and Gomorrah; and church membership is regarded 
as a stepping stone to wine parties and poker sociables. We can 
lead you to the twenty most moral families of twenty years ago; 
all high in the supposed moral scale, four of them in the forefront 
of God's service in church; four others equally zealous, as the hus- 
bands and fathers were superintendents of Sunday-schools for 
many years; and all twenty families, embracing eighty-five of the 
cleanest and best of the city's population, converted to Christian- 
ity, and open professors of religion. To-day every family, without 
exception, is haunted by the curse of sin and crime; one ex- 
Sunday-school superintendent an embezzler and a criminal; three 
other ex-Sunday-school superintendents drunkards, horse-race gam- 
blers and scoffers at religion; and the other fallen to the lowest 
depths in the moral scale. Not one of the eighty-five attends 



NATURALNESS OF EVIL 



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church or mentions religion except to deride it; and tlio.se that 
died fell into the slough. We mention this remarkable case, for it 
is remarkable, for the purpose of showing the uncertainty of the 
power of supposed conversion. Where is that safeguard in each 
of those eighty-five lives? Do you suppose that, when death has 
claimed them all, they are to pass to another realm and witness the 
glories of eternal life? Their fate is death. A soulless oblivion. 
Their carcases will dissolve and join the fund of matter from which 
they came, and their vitality return to its own fund. This is a 
fixed law. The wages of sin is death. 

Sin is merely imperfection. The deeds of barbarians are 
the grossest sins, next to the unaccountable crimes of brute-savages. 
For them there is no blame. When the Indian burnt his victim at 
the stake, pinched his flesh with red-hot irons, tortured him in 
horrid agony, or scalped the unfortunate Caucasian maiden, he 
obeyed the instincts of his imperfect nature. Millions have done 
worse things, and been blameless. For them there is no future. 
The body gives up its matter, the vitality its life, and both go to 
join the funds that permitted them to come forth. The same ex- 
cuse may be offered for the villainous men and women of our more 
modern day, who, in the shadow of school and church, disobey the 
great commandments of God and man. The decree of the |)sycho- 
zoic period is that its matter and its vitality shall return to their 
funds, to come back to other lives, under repeated impulses, until 
the era shall draw to its close, and the curtain fall. 

If anyone is so illogical as to believe that the brute-savage 
who dwelt on earth one hundred thousand years ago, and tore the 
flesh of his prey with canine teeth and finger-claws over which 
hair grew in shaggy abundance; that the tribal savages of fifty 
thousand years ago or less, who held their annual feasts by the 
great coasts where shell-fish were easily obtained, and who piled 
up the refuse in heaps known as kitchen middens; that the rude 
people who made arrow-heads, spear-tops, hatchets and other im- 
plements out of flint and various kinds of stone, with which they 
killed their enemies or slew their game; the obscure and benighted 
groups of mysterious families who lived in later periods and left 
behind no trace of their existence except earth houses and burial 
pits; the savages, whose skill in iron and bronze aimed only to kill; 
the lake-dwellers, who pushed their floating houses far enough 
from the shore to be exempt from the danger of attack, and who 



182 



IMMORTALITY 



lurked in their open retreat like skulking beasts; the cutthroats 
who sprang out of the earth in Eastern and Northeastern Asia, 
overran the Orient, murdered many millions of people, and sent 
their progeny into China, Turkey, Northern Africa and Spain; 
the South Sea Islanders, who have deluged their soil with the 
blood of religious victims for these thousands of years; the black 
skins of Africa, whose highest moral code has been treachery to 
friends, and the bludgeon for the unwary; the hordes and swarms 
of imbeciles that have come and gone in endless succession in the 
wilds of the earth: the pagans of China, who press the weight of 
cruelty on all human affections and emotions; the libertine mill- 
ions of India, who count their empty prayers over deeds of mid- 
night crime and unsoiled consciences reeking with falsehood and 
guilt; the wild nomads of Arabia, begrimed with the slaughter of 
countless men, women and children enacted to satisfy their greed; 
the worshippers of I sis, Osiris and Hants, of the bull Apis, the 
calf Mucins, the white cow of Athor, the ape, hawk, cat, ibis, asp, 
crocodile, frog, dog, jackal, beetle and mouse, to each and all of 
whom innocent children were sacrificed; the Assyrian and Babylo- 
nian idolaters who offered live human bodies in atonement to images 
of clay, stone and metal, which they declared to be true gods; the 
Pboenecians and Carthagenians. who believed that Baal and Molcch 
were controllers of all fate, who danced in groves on high places 
amid the wild cries and self -mutilations of their votaries, who be- 
fore and after each battle offered hundreds of their own people as 
living sacrifices to images of stone and metal; the people of Tyre, 
who for many centuries made hollow metal images in which fires 
were built, and whose priests placed children in the idols' glowung 
hands, while drums were beaten to drown the little sufferers' cries; 
the tyrant Astyages, who summoned his royal guest Harpagus to 
his feast, and served him with the roasted flesh of his own son, 
asking him afterward how he liked the meat he had eaten; the cruel 
Cambyses, who secretly murdered his brother, attempted to marry 
his sister, and killed her in the intrigue, and who left his soldiers 
to perish in the burning sands of the Ethiopian desert; the Persian 
armies of luxurious drunkards who, sapping Asia of its best mill- 
ions and driving their lecherous gods upon the little states of 
Athens and Sparta, melted like wax before the courage of Mara- 
thon, -Thermopylae, Sal amis, Platea and Mycale ; the cowardly dem- 
agogues of the crowning era of Grecian liberty, who forced theii 



NATURALNESS OF EVIL 



183 



politics upon the loyal masses until they rose against themselves 
and the whole State went under; the sculptors, artists, poets, 
dramatists, philosophers and heroes of Athens, who, upon attain- 
ing the height of ancient civilization, lost all their manhood and 
virtue in wine, women and lascivious pleasures, and became the 
prey of mobs; Alexander the Great, who conquered Tyre by build- 
ing a stone pier two hundred feet wide and half a mile long to 
reach the island on which the city stood, who laid Egypt at his feet 
without a blow and founded the city which bears his name, who 
defeated a million Persians on the field of Arbela, entered Babylon 
in triumph, and sighed for more worlds to conquer, yet who, in a 
drunken frenzy, slew Clitus, the saver of his life in battle, and tor- 
tured Callisthenes because he would not worship him as a god; the 
imaginative Greeks, who learned their creed in poetry and told it 
in marble, who made Nature overflow with deities sprung from Mt. 
Olympus, beyond the impenetrable mists, aud yet sold their reli- 
gion for cold cash; the Eoman senators, who concealed their laws 
from the masses and adjusted them on every occasion to suit the 
purposes they had in view; the cruel Tullia, who instigated her hus- 
band to slay the king, her father, and rode in her chariot over his 
dead body as it lay in the road; the inhuman Masinissa, who pre- 
tended friendship to the Carthaginian soldiers and, in this guise, 
allured them to sleep in straw tents, and burnt them alive; the 
wicked Caligula, who put to death all citizens who disagreed with 
him, who commanded his grandmother to slay herself, and who cast 
old and infirm persons to wild beasts in order to rid the state of 
the expense of keeping them; the patrician creditors, who forced 
the plebeians to serve in the army without pay, to abandon their 
farms in times of war, to borrow money of them for seed, tools and 
food, and be sold as slaves in default of payment; the religious 
pretenders, who swarmed in Judea and bathed their every act in the 
sea of hypocrisy; the traitor of Judea, Judas, whose betrayal of 
Christ was typical of all that division of mankind who hang on the 
skirts of righteousness for personal gain; Pontius Pilate, the rep- 
resentative judge of all ages, who feared to do justice because of the 
clamor of the rabble; the selfish mobs who crucified our Lord and 
sneered at those who suffered in sympathy with Him; the Jews, 
whose overwhelming twentieth century conceit led to the prophecy 
set forth in the twenty-eighth chapter of the book of Deuteronomy, 
that they should be led away captive into all nations, and that their 



184 



IMMORTALITY 



city should be trodden down of the Gentiles, which prophecy was 
literally fulfilled when Titus surrounded Jerusalem, slew great 
numbers, and destroyed their temple; the black-hearted inhumans 
who tortured and maligned the followers of Christ, and held them 
up to ridicule, as the bartenders, prostitutes and newspapers now 
impale all decent people of to-day; the monster Nero, who was 
taught cruelty by his mother Aggripina, and who drank from her 
breasts the venom of vice, who poisoned his brother Britannicus, 
sent his own mother out to sea in a boat especially contrived to 
fall to pieces and drown her, failing in which he had her assassi- 
nated, who set fire to Rome and allowed it to burn for six days while 
he chanted a poem to the music of his lyre, who killed his wife, 
caused the great Seneca to be suffocated alive in a stove, beheaded 
St. Paul, crucified St. Peter head downward, tortured and mas- 
sacred thousands of Christians whom he charged with his own 
crime of burning Eome, and laughed to scorn all men who did any- 
thing to alleviate the misery of sin and debauchery; the long line 
of emperors who tolerated every form of heathen worship, re- 
spected all religions of pagan tribes, but persecuted and crucified 
Christian men and women; the pestilential hordes of East and West 
Goths, Huns, Vandals, Franks, Alans, Allemanns, Longobards, and 
Burgundians, who swooped down upon the domains of culture and 
civilization, and enveloped the world in the night of barbarism, 
retarding its progress one thousand years; the followers of Alaric, 
who passed the defile of Thermopylae, blighted the fair land of 
Greece, destroyed the precious monuments of her former glory, 
advanced into Italy, sacked the capital, sold her leading citizens as 
slaves to semi-savage tribes, and enacted the opening scenes of that 
swift decay which soon reduced Rome to heaps of ruins and ren- 
dered the title of "Eternal City" a sad mockery; the savage soldiery 
of Attila, king of the hideous Huns, who laid waste the great cities 
of Italy, and left behind him in history no mark save the ruin he 
had wrought; the pirates of Genseric, who refounded Carthage, 
gained control of the Mediterranean, plundered for fourteen days 
the city of the Caesars, ruthlessly destroyed works of art, bronzes, 
precious marbles and valuable collections, made their own name of 
Vandals synonymous with wanton devastation, and drew the cur- 
tain on the last act of the Roman Empire which, though tottering 
for years, now fell to its final doom; the early Germans, who taught 
that all who died of illness or natural causes went to a land of ice 



NATURALNESS OF EVIL 



185 



and fogs, and only those who fell in battle went to Heaven; the 
Teutons who, by their worship of the sun, the moon, and the great 
gods Tni, Woden, Thor, Freya, and Saeter, gave us the pagan 
weekdays of Christian times; the fanatical Mohammedans, who 
made their converts by conquest, shouting that "Paradise will be 
found in the shadow of the crossing of swords/' who offered to the 
languished the choice of the Koran or death; the Saracens, who 
pillaged the finest cities of Egypt, and for six months fed the 
flames of the four thousand baths of Alexandria with the priceless 
volumes of manuscripts from the libraries of the Ptolemies; the 
many generations of ancient civilized peoples who permitted the 
gladiatorial shows to become the standard of their highest tastes, 
in which men fought each other to the death in open, public 
theatres, the audiences becoming frantic with excitement, rising 
from their seats, and yelling in frenzy as the ghastly blow was dealt 
which sent the rushing blood forth in its ruby stream, at the 
bidding of the sacred virgins; the lovers of the brutal beast-shows, 
in which wild animals were displayed in fatal encounters, hungry 
and tortured lions and tigers were matched with human antagonists 
or fed with Christian martyrs, among whom were delicate women; 
the patrons of the bull fights of more recent centuries, founded 
upon the same bloodthirstiness, and brought to the very doors of 
our own country by the ever growing spirit of personal liberty and 
indulgence in conceited vices; the mediaeval women of the supposed 
highest refinement, who cut the throats of captives and read por- 
tents in their flowing blood; the boisterous warriors who compelled 
their wives to till the soil as slaves, and who delighted in the use 
of arrows, spears, clubs, axes, lances, shields and war-horses; the 
Druidical Britons, whose religion was a terrible superstition, who 
worshipped the sun, moon, serpent, fire and other false deities, 
who performed human sacrifices in the most cruel manner, often 
filling with men, women and children immense figures or cages 
formed of osiers, which they set on fire amid the shrieks of the 
frenzied sufferers; the inventors of the so-called "ordeals" through 
which every accused person must pass in order to establish his 
innocence or evince his guilt, and which consisted, even as late 
as the thirteenth century in England, in thrusting the arm into 
scalding water, carrying burning irons nine paces, running blind- 
folded over red-hot ploughshares, or being bound hand and foot 
and thrown into a pond: the authors of the rack that stretched 



186 



IMMORTAUT Y 



open the joints of the victim's body, tore the muscles, and ripped 
apart the solid flesh; the makers and users of the wheel upon 
whose spokes the boimden bodies were strapped, and their bones 
hammered until broken into fragments, to escape which innocent 
persons were compelled to admit pretended guilt by lies, and to 
falsely accuse others equally innocent; the geniuses who con- 
structed the scavengers daughter, a machine that was the exact 
opposite of the rack in that it compressed its victim into a ball, 
and was in use down to a period long after the renaissance; the 
inhuman wretches who brought into use the various devices for 
producing prolonged agony and turning reason into madness when 
a man or woman held a difference of opinion on some trivial ques- 
tion of religion; the founders and supporters of the Inquisition, 
which came into existence on the theory that an unconverted per- 
son was a danger to mankind, under which theory Pope Innocent 
III. sent two Cistercians, Guy and Eegnier, to catch and kill the 
offenders, Gregory IX. gave orders to try all suspected heretics in 
secret without the right of appeal, prisons and dungeons were con- 
structed all over Europe, including the odious and ill-omened 
Bastile, heretics were summoned to the three "first audiences," in 
which the Holy Office did its utmost to wring confessions out of 
them, after which they were remanded for tortures most cruel and 
damnable, in the name of the Savior of mankind, and the shattered 
victims were brought before the holy priests to be told, if innocent, 
that their confessions to avoid extreme suffering had resulted in 
the confiscation of rich estates to the Church or, if silent, that they 
were to be turned over to the secular arm of the Church to be 
burned in public; the ]3opes, priests, bishops and their retinues of 
ecclesiastical tramps who fattened on the hideous misery they 
brought on homes that would have been happy had there been no 
popes, no priests, no bishops and no ecclesiastical tramps; the di- 
vines of holy orders, whose outstretched hands blighted every class 
and rank of life, who left untouched and unharmed no lofty 
dignity in Europe, no eminence in art or science, no purity of life, 
who threatened Charles Y. and Philip II., persecuted Archbishop 
Carranza because of his honesty, smote Galileo, murdered Giordano 
Bruno, attacked Pico Mirandola, made war on books and learning, 
suppressed literature and art, and held back civilization for five 
hundred years, while the heel of dogmatic creeds was pressed down 
on the neck of progress; the selfish and swinish teachers of narrow 



NATURALNESS OF EVIL 



187 



beliefs who crammed into the minds of every age the most astound- 
ing idiocies in astronomy, geography and geometry, to dispute 
which was rank heresy deserving of torture and death; the plotters 
in the massacre of St. Bartholemew who, acting in concert with 
Catharine the regent queen, poured before daybreak into the streets 
of the cities of France, burned the houses of the Huguenots, and 
slaughtered the men, women and children like cattle, no less than 
ten thousand in Paris alone perishing from this religious enter- 
prise: the soft-brained fanatics wdio smelt witchcraft in every shift- 
ing of the temperature and executed upon the gallows, at the stake, 
or by pressing to death, more than four thousand women and two 
thousand men for this imaginary disease: the aristocracy of Eng- 
land and France who, by their luxurious crimes, invited the 
Tengeance of the great public upon the rotten monarchies of 
Charles I. and Louis XVI., and brought one to the block and the 
other to the guillotine; the insincere men and women of the upper 
classes of France, who controlled society, the court and the crown, 
who boasted of their lascivious independence, their skepticism, 
their dislike of morals, their ridicule of noble and elevating in- 
fluences, who took pride in weakening long cherished truths, 
laughed at purity, mocked at virtue, and upheld all social vices 
until the sore had festered to its head and the sterner sinews of 
the nation crowded it on to bursting in the culminating revolution 
and reign of terror; the coarse and brutal leaders of English so- 
ciet} r one hundred years ago who never passed a day without pro- 
fanity and drunkenness; the notorious pressgang that seized and 
carried ofT by force whom it pleased, to be sailors on the men-of- 
war; the upholders and instigators of systems of bribery whereby 
justice was uniformly defeated; the maligners of God, of purity 
and honest conduct, who have prevailed in every age and are the 
applauded leaders of the people in this very hour; the newspaper 
owners who accept millions of dollars in annual tribute from the 
liquor traffic and, in turn, make the use of alcoholic beverages 
popular by a running fire of abuse, sarcasm and ridicule aimed at 
the temperance classes: the tremendous proportion of our popula- 
tion who are engaged in this traffic or openly associated with it or 
its results; the mothers and fathers who set before their children 
their examples of bravado disrespect for temperance; the clergy- 
man-professor who, carried away by the soft insinuations of Satan, 
openly espoused the sale of intoxicants at one of the great uni- 



188 



IMMORT ALU Y 



versities of the land; the ministers of God who to-day are afraid 
to offend the tight-fisted, scheming tradesmen of their churches 
by an open and aggressive warfare upon the hosts of sin, and 
therefore content themselves with a cowardly neutrality in all con- 
flicts in which the devil and the Church are opponents, avoid un- 
popularity by strategic positions of quietude in every issue of im- 
portance, and get behind the flimsy shield of preaching meaningless 
creeds and praying to vacuity; the professed converts to Christian- 
ity who imagine that they are saved for all eternity because they 
have come into the Church, yet who never struck a blow to weaken 
the onward march of Satan, nor threw a javelin into the ranks of 
the enemy; the men and women who pretend to love the cause of 
morality, yet dare not take an open stand against the ever onward 
march of evil; the gamblers of the dive and den and their patrons; 
the gamblers of the polished drawing-room or the palatial club- 
house and their white-blooded, lecherous brothers, the sleek-eyed 
gamblers of fashionable society; the gamblers of the race-track, 
the toughs who pit the game, the jockeys trained in the school of 
fraud, the owners of horses, the clerks who first stake their own 
pennies and later on their employers' dollars, the weak-minded 
youths who insanely hope for profit in their criminal transactions 
with the bookmakers, the idlers, the men of leisure, the women of 
the street, the women of the hotels, the women of ultra-fashionable 
society who boast of allowing themselves to be buncoed out of little 
fortunes that might well supply the needs of whole families 
through long winters; the reporters who write alluring articles 
describing this exciting form of gambling and thus add ever to the 
stream of victims that haunt the track; the legislators who, for fear 
of losing votes, sell their manhood to corrupt measures; the officers 
of the law who secretly connive with evil doers in the hope that 
they may be continued in their positions; the speculators in the 
stock exchanges who squeeze the blood from the hearts of their 
victims as relentlessly as the tiger crushes the life out of the lamb; 
the calcined souls of manipulators of great corporations who have 
wrecked others' fortunes for their own greed, driven honest men 
into poverty, and sat down in the midst of their indolent families 
housed in sumptuous splendor, and been accredited the Napoleons 
of finance; the large army of rich men of to-day who dress their 
wives and daughters and educate their sons with wealth stolen 
through fraudulent contracts made with the State and National 



NATURALNESS OF EVIL 



189 



governments to whose interests they have sworn allegiance; the 
hordes of politicians who sway the populace into ugly moods in 
order that they may ride on the crest of change into positions of 
power where they may plunder the public treasuries; the malignant 
writers of daily attacks on the officials who repel the blackmail of 
the press; the crook-beaked, detestable, foul-smelling and nasty- 
nosed editor of the most contemptible newspaper of the world, 
who stops at no crime, hesitates at no dishonor, cringes at no 
wickedness, pauses at no lie, to make himself and his paper a 
stench in the nostrils of the nation, and whose bony hands, reeking 
with the sewerage of scandal, obscenity and infidelity, have reared 
in the city of New York, the largest social and literary dung-heap 
on earth; the reporters and correspondents who steal documents, 
public or private, and brand the crime as newspaper enterprise, 
who write pretended interviews with prominent individuals and, 
being charged with lying, attempt to convince their readers that 
these prominent individuals are mentally deficient or suffer from 
loss of memory, who concoct a thousand lies concerning any event 
which will probably be preserved as history by the credulous masses, 
who constructed out of nothing but their own gall tons of inter- 
views with Spanish generals in Cuba and spent months afterward 
in charging these officers with having the audacity to deny them; 
owners of papers that seek to make cigar and cigarette smoking 
popular in return for profits received from an immense volume of 
advertising, well knowing that their gratuitous reading sentiments 
will add to the list of annual victims to the irresistible habits; the 
editors who, to gain money and prestige by pretented partisanship, 
foment quarrels, assail character and disturb the business interests 
of the country; the men and women who dissect the reputations of 
their fellow beings for no other reason than to feed their morbid 
appetites with the ill-fortunes of others; the publishers of books 
and periodicals that are designed to foster and increase those 
appetites by supplying in literary form the worst allurements to 
vice and crime that the financial enterprise, debased cupidity and 
brutal cunning of human genius can concoct; the members of 
Congress who, for fear of being spattered with mud, refuse to 
suppress this rapidly growing evil, and even go so far in partnership 
as to enact laws directly favorable to these publishers, whereby the 
United States is compelled to carry, at a constant money loss, mill- 
ions of tons of obscene and criminal literature even into the very 



190 



I M MORI ALU Y 



homes and lives of the hoys and girls, and the young men and 
young women of this republic; the miserable peddlars of impure 
pictures who, under the cover of sham confidence, trade in these 
slough-sores for mere greed; the sickly social leaders and pretended 
patrons of high art who, imbibing the aristocratic crimes that 
festered to a head in the bursting cancer of the French ^Revolution, 
are now repeating that history in this country by parading their 
immorality in dress, picture, statuary, dances, wines, liquors, gam- 
bling and fashionable prostitution; the brewers of beer who, to 
secure an eternal grip on the lives of those who drink their fluid, 
have perfected the art. of charging it with opium and other drugs 
so as to wind the coil of habit around the minds and souls of their 
victims, to overthrow which is harder than to reduce the rock of 
Gibraltar by the lightnings of Heaven; the adulterators of food who 
make their fortunes, build their houses, embellish their lawns, 
clothe their families and feast their friends upon funds accumulated 
through trickery and treachery in the secret processes of manufac- 
turing spurious articles to sell to their fellow beings; the harpies of 
trade who, knowing the dependence necessarily placed upon honesty 
in the preparation of chemicals, nevertheless endanger the lives of 
invalids by falsehood and fraud in their guaranties of purity; the 
practitioners in the legal profession who, securing clients, rich or 
poor, proceed to cup, leech, bleed, squeeze and dessicate them, 
during which exhausting process they drag their cases in the courts 
until defeat is a luxurious relief; the judges who permit the merits 
of cases to be side-tracked before the all powerful pleas of flimsy 
technicalities, thereby dealing out misery and suffering in the 
place of justice; the men and women of paramount selfishness and 
withering indifference who, having the power to protect and to en- 
force their protestations, nevertheless offer no resistance, but on 
the other hand actually encourage the steadily advancing line of 
that solid phalanx of public sentiment which derides purity of 
thought, honesty of religion, cleanliness of morals and all the 
bright and blessed doctrines of life; if any person is so illogical as 
to believe that these created beings will become tenants of a realm 
of bliss beyond the sky and there be nursed into harmony with the 
principles which they despised on earth, it may be well to disabuse 
the mind of such notion here and now, and confront the situation 
in all its unpleasant realism. 

We are living in the psychozoic period, which is an era 



NATURALNESS OF EVIL 



191 



of sin. It lias already endured for thousands of years; but what 
time yet remains before its end will be recorded on the face of the 
globe, is purely a matter of conjecture. That it is to be succeeded 
by a final age. in which the purposes of creation, as far as this 
planet is concerned, will be crystallized in a type and race that shall 
outshine present humanity as we outshine the brute-savage, is as 
certain as that the earth is a fact. 

What should impress us now, as students and investi- 
gators, is the less satisfactory condition of our own period with its 
many centuries of failure. It is an era of sin for which the 
offenders are no more to blame than the pet cat who eats the pet 
canary bird. If there are men and women now living on earth 
who are to be saved out of this wreck, and we believe there are, 
tbey are decidedly scarce in numbers and. sparse in friendships; 
nor do we imagine that any voluntary act of their own has led them 
to the exalted portals. Amid the rubbish of Mohammedanism 
there is one sensible saying which conveys the idea that only those 
are able to believe who are permitted to believe; so it appears that 
the dishonest and immoral classes of every grade of society are 
incapable of rising out of their temptations. 

When civilization shows clearly that its topmost achieve- 
ments rest so heavily upon the humanity that carries them that 
the final tendency is to fall, as in the case of Babylon, Jerusalem, 
Alexandria, Athens, Borne, Paris, London and every great city of 
culture in America, it must be accepted as a safe conclusion that 
the journey of mankind toward the stars is parabolic, its highest 
flight culminating in a downward curve, ending in the slough of 
degradation. There are two extremes of city life in our glorious 
country; one is the most civilized, the other is the most barbarous. 
In the former we find the physical crime called ill-health, attended 
by disused faculties, sickly minds and the refinement of hectic 
dissipation; men and women who so far discard the talents with 
which God and nature have endowed them, that they take pride in 
nervous prostration, chronic dyspepsia, petrified livers, decayed 
kidneys, broken-down heart machinery, unused lungs, thin blood, 
bleared eyes, flabby skin, and flesh that is tenderly sore to the 
touch; while their value, morally, mentally, physically or aesthet- 
ically, to themselves, their friends or the world, is less than that of 
the humblest toiler in the street. In the other extreme we see the 
sad picture of self-inflicted distress which shows that barbarism is 



192 



1MMORTALIT Y 



an incident of civilization. Here are families of half-fed, half- 
clothed, miserably housed humanity, led by their appetites and 
passions to spend dollars for beer and cents for bread; they swear, 
curse, growl, quarrel and carouse: live in self-created filth, im- 
mured by their own vermin, and keep up day after day that endless 
patter of coin dropping into the tills of the grog-shops, which rolls 
up the millions that are erecting in the United States every year 
more breweries than school houses. It can be easily proved that 
the accumulated pittances spent by these lowest classes alone for 
vile and poisonous beer will, in two years, pay off the vast burden 
of the national debt. The charity, chiefly of the middle classes, 
supports them in idleness; while the wages they earn build new 
million-dollar breweries. Associated with their appetites is the 
barbarism that thrives among grovelling and besotted beer drinkers. 
Yet the sentiment of the people is in favor of personal liberty in 
this direction, and it is rapidly increasing. In a few years the 
temperance question will be a reminiscence, so powerful are the 
combined foes of morality, so active are their talented leaders, and 
so inactive are the forces of honorable manhood and womanhood. 

Sin is simply imperfection, and imperfection is incom- 
pleteness. The ultimate goal of creation has not yet been reached; 
therefore existence is in a state of progress. It is necessarily in- 
complete. Being incomplete, it is necessarily imperfect. Being- 
imperfect, humanity is logically sinful. The lion charges upon the 
child, and soon its life has absorbed that of the little one. To the 
loving mother the act is cruel; but there is no hereafter where the 
ferocious beast must face a tribunal of justice and receive the sen- 
tence of torture and damnation in the bowels of hell while a happy 
Heaven rolls its landscape over the abyss and its angels revel in 
blithesome glory. The ignorant savages who have dealt out to their 
fellow beings the pangs of brutal suffering, the seekers after re- 
venge who have soaked the ground with the blood of their real or 
fancied enemies, the holy fathers of the Church of peace who 
ploughed Europe with fanaticism and turned every happy home 
into a dark and hideous tomb, are no more to be blamed than the 
spider that killed the child, or the wild beast that tears its victim 
to shreds. They each and all obey their instincts. 

Every now and then we see the statement in some publi- 
cation that the world is growing better. There never was a mo- 
ment in the history of Babylon, Jerusalem, Athens or Rome, when 



NATURALNESS OF EVIL 



193 



great and good men, wise and thoughtful men, did not express 
and honestly believe the same sentiment. Even in those heroic 
days of Greece, when virtue, art and purity received their stimulus 
in the severe discipline of simplicity, the astute philosophers saw 
the age improving; but when the finely chiselled characters that 
grew out of that rare system of living pursued their instincts to the 
higher planes of pleasure, adding luxury to culture, and indulgence 
to selfishness, the best thinkers of the times knew that the world 
was growing better; but civilization had reached its zenith; the best 
minds that ever existed had been developed; the farthest limit of 
human culture had been touched; and the race swung round the 
parabolic curve on the downward path. There is no other re- 
course. The world is growing better; and that the turn is being 
made, is as plain as that the rocket, tending upward to its ex- 
plosion, overfalls itself and plunges to the dark vale below. 

Some good hearts tell us that no God of justice would 
create men who are to suffer and die in this world, unless there 
was a future reward in another; that humanity is not to blame for 
being born as it is, having had no choice in the matter; and that 
all the turbulent misery of this life will find sweet peace after 
death. The sweetest peace is the long sleep of oblivion, when 
turbulence and sin form the basis of life. Either it is true that 
all human beings are to survive death, or that some are to perish. 
All we know of this matter is to be ascertained from one of two 
sources, if not from both; either from the facts of nature, or the 
statements of the Bible. The good souls who tell us that no God 
of justice would create a being that ivas to perish, must remember 
that the Bible is the Word of God and the source of information 
concerning Him; yet the Bible tells us that God did create beings 
who were to perish; that the entire population of the world, num- 
bering millions, were so wicked that He destroyed all but a little 
group of eight, having repented that He had made them. As 
badness does not follow an era of universal goodness, it must be 
true that their parents and grandparents, and long lines of antece- 
dents had been wicked as well as the immediate generation that 
was destroyed. If God repented that He had made men, it must 
be true that He was powerless to improve them; and, as His omnip- 
otence extends over this life and that which is to come. His in- 
ability to improve men must have applied to both worlds; and their 
destruction in this was their end once for all. Xor could any 



194 



IMMORT AL1T Y 



sensible person conceive of the Creator killing millions of beings 
who were so detestably wicked that He repented having made them; 
and, after they had been annihilated to be got rid of, admitting 
them to Heaven and eternal happiness. If they escaped from hell, 
it was more than they had a right to expect. When they perished, 
it was their end. So, likewise, their ancestors must have been 
doomed to the same oblivion following their natural demise. This 
is the Biblical source of information. 

Every page in nature tells the same story. The more 
closely we study the earth and its processes, the more clearly we 
find the Bible corroborated. The latter tells us of other occasions 
when great bodies of people were destroyed by the direct act of 
God, on account of their wickedness and utter worthlessness. So, 
whichever way we turn for information, we find it true that created 
beings were brought into the world to be destroyed; and all the 
testimony that bears the stamp of genuineness points conclusively 
to the fact that the wages of sin is death, — death to the body and 
death for all eternity. 



CHAPTER XX. 



ORIGIN OF RELIGION. 



f 628 1 




ELIG-ION is a blossom on the tree of nature. 

This is the 628th Ralston Principle. It represents a law. 
It requires but two persons to originate a religion. If 



one person only had ever come upon the earth, he would 
never have witnessed death: and. as he would be powerless to im- 
press his convictions upon the animals about him, there would be 
no use for a religion. It would be impossible, however, to place any 
two human beings on this planet within sight of each other, with- 
out finding a creed growing out of their very intercourse. When 
one who has talked and interested another in the flesh, is stricken 
dumb by the hand of a mysterious destiny, the survivor attempts 
to solve the problem. The departure of loved friends and rela- 
tives, from the bourne of the known to the land beyond the im- 
penetrable mists has brought more stout men to religious convic- 
tions than all the theology and preaching of the world combined. 

If the churches were demolished, if the Scriptures were 
destroyed, if the hand of sacrilege should lay low every holy altar 
on earth, the yearning after the society of the beloved departed 
must quickly create a religion that would assume the stature of the 
minds that molded it. When ties of sweet companionship, bonds 
of pure affection, or golden chains of happy love bring two lives 
together in rapt devotion each to the other, the sundering of that 
union by the cutting knife of death serves at once to establish a 
hope that the soul may survive the wreck of matter, and the friend- 
ship be revived in other climes. This of itself would lay the foun- 
dation of a religion. But the afflicted mind in moments of despair 
looks plaintively to calmer judgments, and eagerly absorbs every 
tone of encouragement and every word of hope. This would 
create the priest or minister; and there has been no age when the 
natural services of such advisers would not give rise to the order of 
the clergy. Men love power; they cherish attention: they yearn 
to be thought oracles of wisdom, and when their explanations and 

(195) 



196 



IMMORTALITY 



prophecies are listened to with wonderment, they soar aloft to new 
heights of pleasure, made dizzy by the flattery of worship. 

This principle is seen at work in every community how- 
ever small or large. The man who is able to prophesy the weather 
for the morrow is puffed up with pride if he finds even a little 
child who believes that the weather will be as he predicts; but 
when a case of actual occurrence coincides with his foretelling, and 
people volimtarity seek his opinion on the weather of another mor- 
row, his pulling is a very trivial incident compared with the Fal- 
stalfian bloating that follows. This personal feeling is thoroughly 
human and natural. We doubt if any stronger motive can be 
round in the world. The weather contains mysteries, but none 
that arc the equal of those connected with death. In times of 
despair the strongest men and women cling to any comforter who 
commands their confidence. Goodness, real or apparent, magnet- 
ism, superior leadership accompanied by a keen knowledge of 
human frailties, will give birth to a religion and the office of priest 
in an incredibly short space of time. 

It is useless to deny that this is the primary process whereby 
all religions are originated; for it is a matter that is capable of 
exact proof. A'o better line of study and observation can be found 
than this; and, to the mind that seeks the labor of thorough in- 
vestigation, the fruits of proof are abundant. Nor can it be said 
to conflict with revealed religion, which is the fairest blossom on 
the tree of nature. The bad logic of theologians who tell us that 
immortality is proved by the universal thirst for a future existence, 
that God. is proved by a universal believe in a supreme power, and 
that religion is proved by a universal yearning after spiritual com- 
fort, yet that no other creed but theirs is the right one, need not 
be charged to the blossom, nor to the tree itself, but merely to 
the ignorance, often well meant, of self-appointed priests and 
preachers. 

It is true that there is a universal thirst for future exist- 
ence; for no tribe and no people, except in cases of peculiar beliefs, 
lias been exempt from this hope. Even class and race divisions 
fail to draw the line of separation in this regard. It is quite 
probable that the brute-savage had some form of worship one 
hundred thousand years ago. Long before the Caucasians were 
created there were numberless tribes sacrificing their fellow beings 
as peace offerings to deities of some kind or other. No collection 



ORIGIN OF RELIGION 



197 



of humanity lias been too barbarous and too degraded, and no 
nation has been too cultured or civilized to possess a religion, a 
deity and a form of worship. You may place the children of 
savages with the offspring of refinement and learning, in any 
obscure part of the world before they are old enough to have im- 
bibed a knowledge of any creed, and you may ostracize them from 
all mankind until they are of mature age, untouched by the grace 
of any established belief : and, as soon as reflective thought sways 
their minds, this irrepressible bud of nature will unfold its blos- 
soming leaves until the full-fledged flower of religion will shed its 
radiant beauty over their daily lives. 

[ —629- ] 
All nature tends to blossoming. 

This is the C29th Ealston Principle. It represents a law and 
an impulse. Its operation is seen in so many ways, and is so en- 
tirely without exception that its mere assertion carries the proof 
of its truth on its face. There is the physical blossom; there is 
the vegetable blossom; there is the mental blossom; and why should 
there not be the soul blossom? In the simplest form of illustration 
we see the tiny plant burst open the seed from which it springs, 
send upward the shoot that supports the foliage, throw outward the 
branches on either side, form the twig that sustains the leaf, shape 
the bud, open its petals, paint them in appropriate hue, crystallize 
its phosphorus, or mind-material, into seeds or germs of its own 
life, mature, ripen, fail and die; leaving behind a multiplied off- 
spring which are destined to repeat the process until their live- 
are cut short. 

Life runs from seed to seed, whether in one form or an- 
other. In the human race we find this true, but not as we see it 
openly in the plant. The female womb is developed from its 
embryo; the ovaries tend ever toward their ripening, and they 
mature exactly the same seed-life that the plant constructs. So 
similar are the processes in principle that poets have named the 
bursting open of the egg the flowering period of woman, and her 
so-called sickness has been termed more properly the flowers. Like 
the blossoms in the garden, they are barren unless fertilized by the 
opposite sex. This is true in all life, animal and vegetable. Birds 
go in pairs; beasts associate; and plants mature no reproductive 
seed unless the male and female flowers unite. It was by a knowl- 



198 



IMMORTALITY 



edge of this law that raisers of strawberries were able to turn 
barren plants into profuse fruiters. If you separate the male 
flowers from the female, none of them will mature berries; restore 
the two sexes, and they will bear abundantly. In ways peculiar 
to their kind, every species of life, animate and inanimate, is 
charged with the same function. Whether in the concealed egg 
of the mammal, or in the full opened flower of the plant, there is 
the tendency to blossoming and the creation of the reproductive 
seed. 

When any life commences it seems as though the im- 
pulse of its climax begins work at the very start. Ambition leads 
to some perceived end; hope has a distinct attainment in view; and 
every specimen of existence seems endowed with a knowledge of 
the duty with which it is charged. Study the climbing eagerness 
of the corn, and note how every step in its growth leads to the 
nestling ears, the tassel-flowers, and the golden seed, after which it 
realizes that its usefulness is gone and its career at an end. The 
beautiful child, taking on new functions as the little life develops 
its graver duties; budding, blossoming, ripening to its seed; and 
keenly nursing a new-born passion that floods its life like a cloud of 
fire until some sweet affinity breathes into its heart the interpreta- 
tion of its meaning, is but repeating the oft told story of nature. 

Bound together by the closest ties of relationship, man 
and plant life may be studied in common; and it will never happen 
that the law of one will contradict the law of the other. There is 
no true principle that applies in one case that is not fully applicable 
in the other; the only difference being one of scale or rank. Thus 
the seed of the tree is the union or collecting together of the 
phosphorus, or mind-matter; the brain of beast or man is the drift- 
ing into a larger mass of these same particles of mind-matter; and 
it could never happen that man's brain would be formed unless 
plant life had collected its seed to be eaten by man. In other 
words, the seed of the plant is a collection of its mind-matter, and 
the brain of man is a collection of the seed. Eemove the seed- 
bearing tendency of plants, and man's mind would be an impos- 
sibility. The plant blossoms for the purpose of producing seed; 
and the mental proclivities of man blossom in his brain. Thus 
nature forms its purpose and sees its goal, even in the simplest steps 
of vegetable growth. 

This tendency to mature any kind of life into the fruit of 



ORIGIN OF RELIGION 



199 



some blossom, is so clear that it furnishes us a key to aid in solving 
the hidden mysteries of creation; not that it necessarily solves 
them, hut it aids in doing so. The principle is an exact one. What 
may seem a variation, is merely another use of the same law. 
Everything culminates to a head or climax. If we study the blade 
of grass we find an impulse within every cell and fibre of its being, 
tending toward the blossoming of its life in the seed. If we leap 
to the extreme of creation, we find within man, from the brute- 
savage to the highest specimen of civilization, an ever present im- 
pulse reaching upward, toward the blossoming of something akin 
to the soul, and this effort is called religion. 

If the hope of immortality were founded upon an inven- 
tion like that of the steam engine, or any of the thousand marvels 
of the mental blossoming of the present century, we might deem 
it a mere construction due to this kind of genius; and in such case 
it would appear in one country first, and have its origin in one time 
and place, as all inventions have done. But the religious impulse 
springs into being of itself, and in all ages, countries and climes, 
amid all classes of people, high or low. It is not something that 
may be called a part of man; it is man himself. To kill it out of 
humanity you must exterminate the race. As each age of change 
for the better has always been foreshadowed by the impulses of 
the past, so this all-pervading effort of the human heart to evolve 
its soul-nature, presages the next step of the future. We find the 
impulse at work; we see the forming petals of its blossoms in the 
religions of to-day; and we have a right to expect the seed, and 
then the fruit. 

It is important to ascertain if the advance of the religion 
of this age is of that nature which warrants us in regarding it as 
the fruit of the blossom. We must either settle this question one 
way or the other at this juncture, or else admit that it is incapable 
of solution. Certain facts help us. First, it is true that all hu- 
manity is religiously inclined. The exceptions are found chiefly 
among civilized people whose good sense tells them that creeds are 
artificial forms of religion, and this leaves them unaware of the 
undercurrent that flows steadily on in their natures. Second, it is 
true that life is progressive; creation never stands still; a step is a 
plane of existence, not the end. Third, it is true that the pro- 
gressions of the past have moved from matter to vegetation, from 
vegetation to animal life, and from animal life to mental force; 



200 



IMMORTALITY 



thus showing a departure out of the condition of one era into some- 
thing always higher, but at the same time founded upon all pre- 
ceding conditions. Fourth, it is true that each step is evolved 
from an impulse that has manifested itself clear]}' in its immediate 
predecessor. Fifth, it is, or is not, true that the universal religious 
impulse of this psychozoic period, is the forerunner of the next 
step in the progress of the earth. It is here that the problem 
confronts us; and it is at this very point that we must meet it. 

Our preceding principles bear somewhat upon the ques- 
tion at stake. We find that the fountain is ever seeking its head, 
and that its head is capable of perfecting what it has undertaken. 
We cannot, and will not, admit that God is imperfect; we certainly, 
therefore, will not admit that lie is incapable of perfecting what 
He has undertaken. Man is clearly not the goal of creation; for to 
admit this would be to acknowledge what every thinking person 
knows to be untrue, namely that man is the best that God can do. 
Indeed, all devotees of religion tell us that man is imperfect in 
this world, but will be perfect in the next. This we believe to be 
trite, in just the same sense that the Bible states it to be true; but 
not as the interpreters of the Bible teach it. They contradict that 
great work by drawing conclusions entirely unwarranted by the 
text. Admitting then that imperfection is stamped upon the 
human race, we are absolutely convinced that creation is still in- 
complete, and we are a step in its progress. 

The universal impulse toward the fruits of religion is a 
natural effort of the race. If it is the next step beyond imperfect 
humanity, it will appear as a thing apart from the incompleteno-> 
of the age; it will be founded upon all present and past conditions, 
yet rise distinctly and clearly above them to perfection itself, unless 
there is still another step to be taken beyond that. The nature 
of the religious impulse of this era will, therefore, answer the ques- 
tion as to its being that final step toward which existence tends. 
In other words, if religion, natural, revealed, or any other kind, 
is a thing of perfection, it must be accepted as the goal of crea- 
tion; the fruit of the blossom of this psychozoic period; but if 
religion is not perfection, but only a step toward it, then it may be 
said to be the blossom and not the fruit, its many creeds being the 
many petals of the flower, but its seed, uniform and unvarying, a 
thing of the future. In solving this question, the next principle is 
an important means of help. 



ORIGIN OF RELIGION 



201 



[ ] 

Every religion reflects the character of those who 
profess it. 

This is the 630th Kalston Principle, and presents a fact as well 
as a phase of humanity. This law settles at once the doubt that 
has led up to its introduction. If it is true, then it tells us in the 
most emphatic manner that our religion is not the final step in 
existence, for it is a thing of imperfection and incompleteness. 
That it is true, is seen by even the merest glance. 

There has never been a time in the history of the world 
when a religion ever departed from the character of the people who 
professed it. AVe see this law verified to a nicety in the individuals 
of the highest civilization, and broadly set forth in the degrees and 
shades of humanity of lesser rank. If you go to Zanzibar you will 
inquire, in advance, what kind of people live there; and if you have 
any knowledge at all of the history of human nature, you can 
satisfy yourself of the nature of the religion indulged in, even be- 
fore you land and. see them. A savage will have a savage religion; 
a barbarous form of worship will reveal a barbarous people back 
of it. 

By way of illustration let us imagine a nation, a real nation 
it shall be, whose worship is conducted solely by priests. This 
does not narrow it very much. You are to guess the nation, if you 
can: or, if not. then the rank of the people in the scale of civiliza- 
tion. The priests hold absolute sway over all classes, high and 
low. The affairs of government, the education of the children, 
the use of books and other sources of information, are controlled 
solely by priests. Tell us, if you can, how high up or down in the 
scale of civilization are the people of that nation? What would 
you think of the United States if it was ruled by priests or religious 
leaders; if there could be no learning, no news, no books of in- 
formation, no decisions of the courts, no conduct of affairs, no busi- 
ness, no farming, no movement of railroad trains or steamships, 
no delivery of the mail, no enjoyment of property, no freedom, 
unless priests or religious leaders permitted it, controlled it, dic- 
tated it, and imposed such limits on it as they saw fit ? The 
very spirit of civilization rebels at the thought of religious inter- 
ference with the affairs of state; but that is because of numerous 
creeds, and the jealousy that compels one set or denomination to 
watch the others. Before Luther protested against the selling of 



202 



IMMORTALITY 



pardons of sin for cash, there was but one religion in the civilized 
world, and that was the Soman Catholic faith. Under its rule, all 
state and secular affairs were conducted by the Church. The king 
ruled the people; the cardinal ruled the king. Had the Catholics 
not sold their pardons of sin for cash, but given them away freely 
in return for sincere repentance, then Luther would not have pro- 
tested, there would have been no Protestants, and the cardinals 
would sit in the White House at Washington with bishops at the 
north wing of the Capitol, and priests at the south wing; unless 
civilization, clothing itself with the right to read books not written 
by priests, could secure the knowledge necessary to liberate its 
wings and give it flight above the bondage of fanaticism. Had 
not some such cause as Luther's awakened mankind to its senses 
and led to the overthrow of papal tyranny, it is perfectly safe to say 
that the earth would still be flat, and the stars and sun would be 
revolving around it as in those happy days of yore when knowledge 
was a capital offence. 

We asked a group of Presbyterian doctors of divinity if 
they believed that the government of the Lnited States should be 
controlled by the Church; and they all said no, that it was not the 
office of religion to rule in secular affairs. We asked the same ques- 
tion of a group of Methodist doctors of divinity; and they said no, 
that it would degrade the Church to step into politics. We re- 
peated the question to other doctors of divinity of other denomina- 
tions, and all agreed that it was a mark of a debased civilization 
when the people permitted religious leaders to govern them. They 
referred to the many repeated instances in history where this fact 
was duly proven. They showed that the savage tribes of to-day 
are terrorized by religious teachers; and one and all stood true to 
the principle of government separation from the affairs of the 
Church. By this we see the one great fact standing out in clear 
relief: that religion is too imperfect a thing to be used in con- 
trolling national life. The higher up we rise in the scale of civil- 
ization, the less influence religion has in the functions of govern- 
ment. 

We look more closely into the principle which is under 
discussion, and narrow our description of the people whose forms of 
worship are to furnish the key to their character. We saw that 
they are ruled by priests. We come now into their midst, and 
study them more closely. Here is a fine pile of marble, darkened 



ORIGIN OF RELIGION 



203 



and stained by age and use. A procession of chanting men moves 
this way. attended by the great populace almost in tears, their 
heads bowed at times in deepest sorrow, and again raised in sublime 
adoration. The music is impressive; the deep, full, rich tones awe 
the soul; the fervor and sincerity carry conviction to our doubting- 
hearts, and all nature sheds her spirit of approbation on the solemn 
scene. They come to the marble block, and prepare it for their 
services. With eyes imploring pardon of the unseen gods for sins 
of overwhelming abundance, these earnest, throbbing souls fall 
down, and worship as best they know how. At length a girl is 
brought forward to the marble. She is of fine figure and expressive 
features. They strip her, lift her to the summit of the pile, and 
lay her down with face toward Heaven, all the time chanting ex- 
quisite music, and breathing prayers for the pardon of their sins. 
The priest of priests ascends by steps to the conscious maiden, looks 
benignly upon her comely form, and knows that she is of that 
tenderness of years that most beautifies girlhood, a fitting tribute 
to the gods. With gentle grasp upon a finely sharpened knife he 
traces a line upon her breast, but does not plunge the weapon; it is 
enough that he cuts accurately and well, while her cries of pain are 
drowned by the toot of boisterous instruments. His dexterous skill 
carves out the heart, which is held aloft, and then placed upon an 
urn near by to be consumed in flames, while her ruby blood flows 
over the marble block in every direction. This form of worship 
is indulged in by certain people of to-day, and by many nations in 
the ages past. Is it in the United States, in Canada, in England, 
Germany or France? Where, then? You will say that no civilized 
people will permit such a wrong. Yet this very thing that yon 
call a wrong, has been the most beautiful form of worship among 
a majority of the human race for thousands of years. Civilization 
protects human life, elevates woman, and lessens the use of cruelty; 
so you will say. 

Many centuries after the Greek ascendancy ; when the 
topmost notch of mental achievements was reached; when the best 
fruits of the best brains that the Caucasians ever produced had ap- 
peared in the scholarly philosophy of Bacon, the sublime genius of 
Milton, and the towering grandeur of Shakespeare; in the fore- 
most country of the globe; amid her atmosphere of literary splen- 
dor, a girl of blue eyes, of white and beautiful skin, flowing hair, 
graceful mien, and tender refinement, was led to the stake. She 



204 



IMMORTALITY 



was no ordinary creature, but of noble descent; a sweet maiden of 
less than twenty summers; one who loved her fellow mortals, for 
her charitable kindness had fed and clothed the poor and relieved 
their distress many hundred times. She had never spoken evil of 
any one, for she had never thought evil. She loved Christ and so 
declared: and her life had been full of that best of creeds, practical 
religion. On some question of subtle and musty meaning she had 
failed to satisfy the churchmen, and they condemned her to be 
burned to death. In hoping to agree with their hair-splitting 
creeds she overstepped their meaning; and so the Christian Church 
sent her to the stake. Coming down through all the centuries was 
that delegation of power from the apostles to their successors, even 
to the time in question. If Christianity had survived at all, it was 
represented by these churchmen; and it was civilized Christianity, 
therefore, that burned this beautiful girl. In that great nation, in 
the flower of her culture, the sole delegates of the most respectable 
of all religions stood forth and proclaimed that the maiden must 
die for some slight and unimportant variance of belief, a mere 
faulty operation of the mind, a failing that any girl might indulge 
in and yet be as pure as the Madonna. But note the scene that is 
enacted. The girl is tied to the stake, and the fagots are placed 
about her feet. Twelve ministers of the Gospel stand and sit 
about. Their theme is forgiveness, peace on earth, good will to 
men. They give orders that the flames shall burn slowly, lest the 
smoke shall suffocate her, and end the agony too soon. To them — 
these twelve ministers of the Gospel, these apostles of love, these 
cultured and civilized doctrinaires — -the cries of pain, the sobs of 
anguish, the wreathing features of horrible human suffering, were 
meat and drink of joyful satisfaction. 

Yet they were the sole legatees, the high dignitaries, 
the ministers plenipotentiary, of the entire Christian religion. As 
the best blood of the aristocratic '"'four hundred" of New York 
City has come down through the lecherous criminals of a few cen- 
turies ago; as the best Hebrew population has been strained 
through the cancerous debauchees whose universal wickedness made 
God stand aghast and repent that He had created them; as the 
most devout Catholics of to-day have no creed other than that 
which has been handed down through the blood of the Neros of 
the Inquisition, so there is no Protestantism that has not come to 
us through the holy men who lighted the fagots of the martyrs. 



ORIGIN OF RELIGION 



205 



In the reign of Elizabeth the greatest minds of all time were pro- 
duced. Their equal may never be known. Yet in the reign of 
Elizabeth the machines and instruments of torture were more in 
use than at airy age before or since. In a single generation the 
Catholics and Protestants three times exchanged power. A sincere 
believer in one of these creeds under one sovereign would be non- 
plussed as to what to believe under the next. Honesty of convic- 
tion was out of the question. To most worshippers it was a matter 
of guesswork; those who hit it right were privileged to burn to 
death those who hit it wrong. What kind of religion do you take 
that to be? Certainl}*, if the chosen and beloved people of Jehovah 
deserted their God in the Old Testament days, He deserted His 
worshippers in the later centuries. 

None of these things must be charged to the Church or to 
its creeds. There is no fault, and no one is to blame. It is simply 
the working of that principle which tells us that every religion 
reflects the character of the people who profess it. No law in all 
the thousand operations of the universe is more exact and more 
vital than this. It never varies. Among savages it implants a 
savage religion; among brutes, a brutal worship; among barbarians, 
a barbaric creed; among the multitudinous imperfections of civ- 
ilization it produces a corresponding mass of fanaticism; and all 
this variable growth of weed and plant, from the bloody nightshade 
to the pale lily, is the bubbling up of that impulse in all humanity 
which is now forming the petals of its blossom in advance of its 
ultimate fruition. 

It will be seen that religion keeps exact pace Avith the 
natural imperfections of men and women. That you are not 
stretched upon the rack to-day and tortured, is due to secular laws, 
not to the Church. This is well understood. It was the great 
purpose of legislation to deprive the Church of its domination over 
the thoughts of men. It makes no difference what creed may be 
in the ascendancy if it were able to-day to shackle the arms of 
secular law, you would be as likely to go to the stake for your be- 
liefs, as were your ancestors a few generations ago. Safety of life 
and limb is not due to the softening grace of religion, but merely 
to the fact that the judgment of lawmakers declared that this 
fanaticism had gone far enough; it was time that common sense 
stepped in to shield noble men and beautiful women from torture 
at the hands of Protestants and Catholics. You may select the 



206 



IMMORTALITY 



fairest creed you will, and let its followers have full power over the 
administration of the laws as they did some century or more ago. 
and you will find no denomination so strong in the love they preach 
but they will practice all the cruelties and barbarisms of the most 
civilized epoch in the history of the Church. 

This blossoming flower on the tree of human nature is 
just as imperfect as the humanity it emblazons. Whatever direc- 
tion we turn, we find this law at work, inscrutable yet inflexible. 
The coldness, the selfishness, the heartlessness of church members 
may be found wherever these qualities predominate in society. 
Rev. Andrew B. Chalmers made the following experiment. He 
says: "I was sick, some in body and much in soul, because I felt 
that the Churches did not have ''compassion on the multitude, be- 
cause they fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep having no 
shepherd/ Mat. ix. 36. I felt this in my own. work. I was so sick 
that my physician told me I could not preach on Sunday. On 
Sunday afternoon I felt better, and told my wife that I was going 
to see how far the Churches believed on Jesus Christ, and whether 
or not they believed on Him in respect to the ones with the 'gold 
ring 7 and 'the gay apparel.' I would have preferred to attend my 
own church, and see how my own congregation welcomed the 
stranger and the poor man in poor clothes, but I knew I could not 
do that without being recognized. I dressed myself in clothes 
better than the average man who works on the street at $1 or $1.25 
per day can afford. The clothes were not ragged. They were not 
dirty. They were not the clothes that a man would work in on the 
street. They were such as he might possibly have for Sunday 
wear. I went to one of the representative churches in the city of 
Cleveland. I do not think this church I visited is more to be 
blamed for what followed than the rest of us. I am dealing with a 
condition. The church I visited pays the pastor $5,000 to $8,000 
a year. I went in during the playing of the voluntary on the grand 
pipe organ and when the worshippers were entering. I stood in 
the aisle and looked down while group after group of fashionably 
dressed worshippers in their "'gay apparel'" were shown by ushers to 
the best seats in the church. I stood there so long that I began to 
be embarrassed, and had to recall to myself again and again who I 
was. and why I was there, to insure my continuing to remain under 
such trying circumstances. I tried to put myself in the working- 
mams place for the evening, and yet I had to remind myself that I 



OIRGIN OF RELIGION 



207 



was not a workingman, and that I had better clothes at home, be- 
fore I could be willing to carry it out. I almost felt tempted to 
tell who I really was to get recognition, but I refrained. When the 
men with the silk hats and those in fashionable attire had been 
given seats down in front, around me, and almost over me, an 
officious usher, evidently feeling that I was cumbering the ground, 
pointed out to me the last seat in the house. He had to bring me 
back a considerable distance to give me the seat, for I had advanced 
some way down the aisle to see if I might get recognition. I was 
not told in so many words that I was not wanted. There was no 
one at the door with a club to knock me down, and drag me out 
because of my impertinence at coming to the church of Jesus 
Christ, the carpenter of Nazareth, in the clothes of a carpenter. I 
felt that if Jesus had come to that church that night it would have 
been with the words, '"Woe, unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypo- 
crites, who tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and neglect the 
more weighty matters of judgment, mercy and peace/ After the 
service was out I stayed around to see if I would be sought out and 
asked to come again and made to feel at home finally. After 
standing around for a time, and watching the rich greet the rich, 
and no poor there to greet me, I wandered home sicker than wheu 
I started out. I was sick in body and sick in soul, for I love the 
Church, and it hurt me to see the apostasy in the life of the Church, 
which is so much worse apostasy than that of doctrine." That Dr. 
Chalmers has correctly described a prevailing condition is con- 
ceded by everybody who is familiar with the facts. Can you name 
any church where the poor are as welcome as the rich? 

This universal law of imperfection is a valuable one; 
and its importance should be clearly understood. Were it true that 
ihe details of our black chapter were surmounted by the white 
purity of religion, we might safely assert that Heaven is but one 
step away; but the fact is that religion is an exact reflection of the 
character of those who profess it. By this we learn that it has a 
department of its own that is ttndergoing development contem- 
porarily with the physical and mental natures. It points con- 
clusively to the evolution of the next and final step in creation, the 
era of the soul dominancy. All the natures of humanity have been 
manifest from the beginning. We do not take on something new, 
but unfold that which has been present in all the past. Even when 
the physical was predominant, or where it is so to-day. the soul is 



208 



IMMORTAL! T Y 



there in quiescence. When the mental takes the lead, the soul part 
unfolds so much the more. This is the psychozoic period of exist- 
ence. Mind is at its high-water mark. It can never touch per- 
fection. It is not destined to reach beyond its already glorious 
achievements. A straining after more knowledge results in break- 
ing the mental powers into specialties. There is the limit. Fet- 
tered by the imperfections of this era, man is chained to the level of 
the mind, and there he will remain until the next step is taken. 

We who profess religion assume too much through our 
ignorance; yet it cannot be helped. We can never be in touch with 
the truths of the universe as long as we yoke our minds to the silly 
earnestness of the obstinate people who carry the religion we have 
described. A little more air, more sunshine, more acquaintance 
with the tremendous facts of life will conduce to health of thought. 
See how easy it is to originate a religion, or rather how easily the 
impulse of the human heart blossom- forth on slight cultivation. 
A good man in the far West employed on his ranch a rough cow- 
boy, who was a native of the country. Tin- latter had been isolated 
from his fellow creatures for the greater part of his life. He con- 
sidered it right to kill an Indian without provocation. The good 
man reasoned to himself: "Now if this fellow will kill an Indian, 
he may attack me when I am asleep. I am in his power; I will 
create in his mind a fear of the consequences, if he should slay me. 
But that would be useless. He well knows how easily he can evade 
the hand of justice. There is no earthly punishment for which he 
has the slightest fear. He also knows that lie may commit murder 
so secretly as to cover up all clues. X o human eye can reach him; 
and this he well understands. I must, however, do something to 
protect my own life. There is but one recourse: I will tell him 
that there is an unseen power that sees into his mind and heart, 
that looks down from above on his every deed, whose eye he can 
never escape, and who will punish him with terrible vengeance if 
he ever kills a fellow being; but who M ill reward him if he is good. 
I will make him believe this; for I will tell it to him with such 
terrible solemnity that he will be awed, into accepting it. He will 
ask me how I know, and I will tell him that the supreme power 
came to me in a vision, and told me to tell it to others. This will 
convince him." — Here are all the elements of religion, and of all 
religions. 

If you will analyze this statement you will find that it con- 



ORIGIN OF RELIGIOh 



209 



tains the very pith of human motive in that it concocts a scheme 
whereby criminals and sinners generally may be deterred from 
wrongdoing under circumstances where human detection would be 
impossible. The unseen power is, in every religion, from that of 
the savage to that of our fashionable Cleveland church, described as 
all-seeing, ever watchful, so that a felon bent on secret murder 
might be deterred by this thought. There never was a minute in 
the history of the human race when the law of self-preservation 
would not make use of this doctrine to frighten the ignorant. It is 
natural. It is thoroughly human. Had not revealed religion 
stated this doctrine, ordinary policy would have invented it. There 
is nothing that could take its place. It had to be. 

All the elements of religion and of all religions, are pres- 
ent in the statement of the good man quoted in the foregoing 
paragraph. First, there is the unseen power, or deity; second, 
there is the all-pervading eye that sees into the heart and brain; 
third, there is the motive to make men good by plunging them into 
the chaldron of fear; fourth, there is the punishment if they da 
wrong; fifth, there is the reward if they do right; sixth, there is the 
impressive solemnity by which this fear is made to penetrate;, 
seventh, there is the proof of the assertion in the allegation that; 
the unseen power appeared in person and entrusted this command! 
to the individual who is endeavoring to terrorize his fellow crea- 
tures. All this is a study in human nature; it is full of humani 
motive and crafty policy; yet it is the basis of every religion the; 
world over, from the beginning of the race down to the present 
day. If you do not believe it, take up the study more carefully,, 
and acquaint yourself with the facts. We have seen this law at 
work in many ways. It is used by non-religious parents to deter 
their children from attempting to do wrong when others are not 
watching them. It is used in rough life and in cultured life. 

It is thus seen how readily this impulse, known as uni- 
versal religion, comes into blossom. Perhaps it is ordained that 
human motives should be employed to arouse it. Because it is- 
stimulated by selfish policy and made known through falsehoods, 
it need not therefore be fraudulent. We have heard scores of 
earnest, honest men and women, speaking in religious meetings, 
declare that they had seen the Lord, and that He came to them in 
visions with commands of one kind or another. Every person has 
heard such statements from others. In the flush of zeal, the ever- 



210 



IMMORTALITY 



flexible and picturesque mind may see things and hear sounds of 
ever}' conceivable character. There is no limit to the nights of the 
imagination. It is easy to prove that what the brain fastens itself 
upon it will conjure up and see or hear. 

A false argument is that presented in the process of 
reasoning which says that a good thought can come only from a 
good person, and that a good person cannot tell a falsehood; there- 
fore the good thought is perfectly honest, reliable and trustworthy. 
This is not true. A good thought may emanate from a bad heart, 
if policy dictates it. Thus the man who fears that certain ignorant 
persons will attempt to take his life, says: "If you do good, and 
never lie, steal, or kill, you will go to Heaven; otherwise you will 
be punished in hell. These things I know, because the supreme 
unseen power appeared to me in person and told them to me." — 
Here it is a stroke of policy, under the law of self-preservation, to 
seek to deter others from committing crimes not easily detected on 
earth. If the men addressed believe the speaker, they will not do 
him harm for fear that what he says may come true. Yet his first 
statement is brimful of goodness. The argument that only a good 
man could utter it, and therefore it must be true, is very weak and 
faulty. There never was a devil who did not proclaim good things 
whenever it was policy to do so. 

The impulse of religion is so strong that it often needs but 
little stimulus to start it to blossoming. Do you think that Mo- 
hammed could have secured millions of fanatical believers in such 
-an incredibly short space of time, if there had not been that wide- 
spread thirst for religion, especially as he presented a new creed to 
pagan minds not especially adapted to receive it? Or, do you think 
it would have been possible for the Mormons to have grown to 
such numbers, if men and women had not been naturally endowed 
with the impulse necessary to this sudden bursting into blossom? 
The Book of Mormon is a good book. The scheme of polygamy 
was a separate policy. There are persons to-day as sincerely at- 
tached to the sacred work of that creed as any of the warmest wor- 
shippers of the Bible. You may select any hundred persons from 
the best community you please, where the Christian religion is 
preached: and then select any hundred from the best Mormon 
community of Utah; and the closest comparison will satisfy you 
that in morals, virtue, sincerity and real character the latter will 
excel the former by a decided percentage. This can be proved. 



ORIGIN OF RELIGION 



211 



We speak from a sense of justice. The facts are attainable. We 
do not propose to argue with the man whose back is turned to the 
risen sun and who does not believe it is yet morning; but if any 
person is willing to look and see whether the sun is up or not, he 
may have proof of it. We assert that the Mormons are gentle, 
sweet-dispositioned, honest, sincere and virtuous, in greater degree 
than the corresponding ranks of others; and that every grade is 
found among them. We also assert that, when the sincere Mor- 
mons place their faith in the Book of their religion, they do so with 
the same veneration that a Christian feels for his Bible. Yet, in 
spite of this sincerity and this veneration; in spite of the moral and 
elevating influence of the Book of Mormon, we do not hesitate to 
declare that it was conceived in fraud and promulgated by a trick; 
it was merely the attempt of an experimenter to see what results 
he could achieve, and what power he could gain by a pretense that 
God had written its teachings and buried them in the ground. 
The man who did this might well be proud of the success he at- 
tained. It, of itself, would be a sufficient reward for the deception. 
Thus good, sprung into existence by falsehood, becomes the instru- 
ment of ennobling character and elevating the moral standard of a 
people. Had the Book of Mormon been written and published 
nineteen hundred years ago, every civilized individual on this globe 
to-day would be a Mormon. This is the inevitable law of the 
human mind. After all it does not matter by what process a re- 
ligion starts into being. What seems to us a fraud, may be an in- 
tended method of birth. You may charge every sin imaginable 
against the introducers of a religion, and yet the principle intro- 
duced in the religion may be the flower of nature in all its sublime 
purity, stained only by the humanity it touches. It would indeed 
he surprising if any system, no matter how good, could, in taking- 
origin, disentangle itself from the imperfections of earth. 

The many dark statements of this chapter are justified 
hy the facts. It would detract from the true value of this work 
if beauty of promise and the gilded glow of glory were spread all 
over its pages to appease the gloom of the human heart. The truth 
is better; for it is honest. It is safer; for it points out the dangers 
that lie around our path. Xo man has a right to charge us with 
a disbelief in God; for we belive in Him as He is in fact, and we 
are not afraid to state the fact as it is. Xo person can charge us 
with a disbelief in the Bible; for we believe in it as it is in fact; to 



212 



IMMORTALITY 



believe more than the truth is to he false. The world has been 
bountifully blessed by the Bible, and bounteously cursed by its 
sophistical interpreters. "We do not cater to the whims of ignor- 
ance, nor do we seek the good opinions of dishonest men and wo- 
men. The truth is black in this psychozoic age. The human 
heart is wicked. The picture of life is set in a background of 
angry skies, turbulent waves and gloomy shore lines; relieved by a 
few gleams of straggling light. The optimism of sugar-minded 
writers is either imaginative dreaming, or wilful untruth. Honesty 
is better than slippery praise. 

If there is a spirit of evil or personal devil, he certainly 
made his malicious influence felt when he established the creeds of 
the Churches; for it is on these rocks that humanity, when even 
at its best, has split and fallen apart. How any sensible person 
can for a moment place value on a creed, it is hard to conceive; 
and, in this oue direction alone, is seen the power of an error to so 
warp the mind as to make it incapable of discarding a mountainous 
wrong. The man who first diverted the blessed religion of Christ 
from its simple, single purpose of saving souls through the doc- 
trines of peace, and made the first split of that sublime faith into 
selfish creeds, was the direct messenger of evil. Judas Iscariot 
betrayed his Master, and sold Him unto death; and He rose to life 
again; but the man who originated the first creed betrayed the 
heritage, and assailed the divine gift of the departed Savior; and all 
that was left to humanity was spilled upon that rock of selfish 
bigotry. If you wish absolute proof of the imperfection of the 
civilized mind, you may find it in this one fact: the best scholars 
of the world, or at least a majority of them, who inherit a belief 
in some creed, are incapable of perceiving its worthlessness on the 
one hand, and its destructive power on the other. 

Another evidence of the mortal weakness of mankind is 
seen in the belief that religion must needs be driven in one channel 
and held harnessed to one course, in order to be the true. The 
man who honestly clings to the idea that there was no religion on 
earth before the time of Christ is too stupid to be argued with;, 
and he who thinks that all the ages and all the realms of the world 
have been denied this blessed boon, except the limited number 
who have been contained in the folds of Christian progress, is 
certainly not acquainted either with the theory of existence, or 
with the facts. It must be conceded that religion is an impulse- 



ORIGIN OF RELIGION 



213 



that will bubble up through the clods of flesh into visible expres- 
sion, no matter where man may be. The children of Israel, the 
chosen people of God, they whom He specially favored and watched 
over, were zealous idol- worshippers in the dark lapses when they 
deserted Him. Their religious impulse they could not check. 
When they ceased to do homage to the invisible, they fell down be- 
fore images of brass or the golden calf. 

Like the sunshine, like the pure air of heaven, like the 
bursting song of birds, is all true religion. The creedists would 
imprison the light, and deal it out to the suffering masses through 
the crevices of walls; but the God that made man gave him an in- 
born yearning for something better than the muddy vesture of 
earth. Christ never excluded from His proffer of grace all man- 
kind except those who came within the narrow compass of His 
life and its succession. He well knew that religion was universal, 
and that its character kept pace with the character of those who 
professed it. His mantle of peace fell on the lowly and the ignor- 
ant, though loaded with the weight of sin; and His curse was 
directed only against the creedists of His day, the false teachers, 
the pretenders of piety in whose hearts murder dwelt. 

Mankind does the best it can, and its long catalogue of 
wickedness must be charged to its imperfections, which are natural 
to an uncompleted creation. Eeligion does the best it can. It 
has accomplished much; but it is an imperfect thing; and its short- 
comings must be pardoned. It is a part of every human being's 
life, whether it is active or dormant, recognized or unknown. Here 
the gloomy outlook turns to optimism. Bad as the race is, it is 
free from blame. The evil is no less, but the censure is unjust. 
The analytical students of humanity have all come to agree that 
mercy and forgiveness must be the guiding rules in dealing with 
men and women. Therefore, if our gloomy view of the frailties of 
the race seem too sombre, it must be taken into consideration that 
the facts should be presented as they are; and yet, black as they 
are, they are excusable in large degree. 

The pet cat that eats the pet canary bird, obeys an instinct 
for which he is not responsible. The fierce tiger that devours the 
unfortunate child is free from a punishable sin. The imported 
laborers of this country, the Italians, Huns and Slavs, who spend 
their week's wages for kegs of beer and a scanty minimum of neces- 
saries; who carouse, swear and fight on Sundays, and plunge their 



214 



IMMORTALITY 



wives and children into filthy degradation, all on account of their 
beastly appetites, are no more to be blamed than the hogs that 
wallow in the nastiness of their pens. They follow the law of their 
instincts. The wild Arabs who infest the deserts and lie in wait 
for travelers, who kill without mercy the unfortunate victims of 
their greed, are blameless. They were born with the natures they 
display. 

It is not at all to be wondered at that religion keeps pace 
with its devotees; savage among savages; cruel among barbarians; 
crude among the uncivilized; and faulty among the best classes 
of people. It will be perfect only when men and women are 
perfect. A clergyman complains to us that he realizes that more 
than ninety per cent, of the members of his church came to it 
through some selfish motive. We reply that such a condition is 
natural because the members are human, and therefore imper- 
fect. Imperfection must show itself in some way, and selfish- 
ness is certainly appropriate. It is because the books of Ealston- 
ism have helped the churches by lessening selfishness and instilling 
the nobler impulse of sincerity, that clergymen are staunch friends 
to our principles. Wherever the influences of this cause have 
gone forth in any community, the churches have been blessed, 
people have become more thoughtful and more religious, and 
clergymen have produced better results because of increased at- 
tendance, with an ever growing membership. It is through honest 
methods of statement that the people have been aroused to the 
dangers their own lives invite upon themselves. Hard and harsh 
as these chapters may seem to the soft-minded and thoughtless, 
their truths will accomplish more real good than the false zephyrs 
of pretended hopefulness wafted o'er a sea of drifting weeds. 

The human mind is an immensely imperfect organ. It is 
capable of building upon imagination, and resting great structures 
on theories, as though they were facts; and, more than this, it is 
incapable of lifting the arm to strike a blow, light as air, that shall 
break the crust and reveal the facts beneath. Few persons indeed 
are acquainted with the realism of existence; to see the effects is- 
one thing, to know the cause is another; but to place confidence in 
the explanations advanced by ignorant investigators of the dark 
eras of the world, is to-day the marvel of mental imperfection. 
The solemnity of religion is something to be encouraged and al- 
ways respected; but its power over the mind is like that of the 



ORIGIN OF RELIGION 



215 



mesmerist over liis subject. Hence we see that mankind, in this 
epoch, is imperfect in body, in morality, in religion, and in mind. 
At no place, in no phase can we find perfection. 

This chapter must be read understanding^ ; or its 
import will be lost. While we do not care for the ill-formed opin- 
ions of the ignorant, there are many intelligent and worthy men 
and women who might easily misconstrue our motives in speaking 
the unvarnished truth concerning religion. To them we would say 
that the facts are coming rapidly to the front in the theological 
seminaries of the country, and in the great universities of the 
world. While these facts will seem to hurt the wild-minded ex- 
claimers of creeds, they will do religion no harm and the Bible no 
harm. The worst enemies of that sacred volume are the ignorant 
persons whose interpretations of its pages cover it with the con- 
fusion of ridicule. Before this book is brought to a close, we 
propose to attempt, in as far as we are able, to rescue it from its 
heretical supporters, and place it on its own exalted pedestal. 

The relation of religion to our argument should be clearly 
understood. We oppose no creed, for we believe in none. We op- 
pose no religion, for we believe in all religions that tend to impart 
that rarest of virtues, inherent goodness or right for the sake of 
right. We believe in inspiration in the sense that motives and 
deeds that lift humanity out of itself are part of the plan of the 
universe. All tendencies are onward and upward. There is no 
falling backward. The plunge of the dark ages was a mixture of 
much bad with a little good, attended by the emerging of a better 
average than had existed before. There is no natural life that is 
not swayed by this elevating impulse. That we are bad is not due 
to our choice so much as to our position in the line of progress. 
The finger of time points never downward but aloft. Therefore 
we declare that all life is inspired; that all hopes, yearnings, efforts, 
works, books, teachings and movements are inspired; when their 
tendency is to do good or to make humanity better. 



CHAPTER XXI. 



THE PUEPOSE OF LOVE. 




OVE is not proof of immortality. 

This is the 631st Ralston Principle. It represents a law 
I and a condition in nature. Its sentiment seems harsh ; 



but so does the statement that, if the best man on earth 
should expose himself to the rigors of an arctic winter, he would 
freeze to death. Nothing can be more merciless than the elements 
of nature; the cold destroys, the fire burns, the water drowns, the 
lightning kills; and all of them are associates with man in this life. 
Beautiful as the world is, tempting to the soul of a noble life as 
its fascinations are, there can be nothing more cruel than the 
steady, unrelenting, inexorable operations of its laws. It seems as 
if the Creator had established the rules that should govern the 
universe for all time, and had then locked His heart against every 
appeal for mercy. 

No one can estimate the millions of men, women and 
children that have been devoured by wild beasts; the millions that 
have drowned; the millions that have perished in the summer's 
heat or the winters cold; to say nothing of the many times millions 
that have been slain by the hand of murder or war. The silent, 
sunken chambers of the Roman Catacombs, with their clay-made 
shelves on which rested six million human bodies in underground 
paths hundreds of miles in extent, are perpetual witnesses of suffer- 
ing, deprivation, and anguish too horrible to contemplate; yet 
these unfortunate wretches were Christians, the beloved of God; 
and, while their pagan enemies caroused in unbounded revels on 
the surface of the earth, the persecuted and hunted worshippers of 
the Creator made for themselves living tombs, and laid themselves 
down to rest many months and years before their corpses gave up 
the breath of life. The love of God surpasses all love. He who 
made them, saw them writhe in the caverns of the ground, stricken 
with disease, enmeshed in the foul stench of their own decay and 
the blue vapors of putrifying flesh. Love yielded to law. 

(216) 



THE PURPOSE OF LOVE 



217 



One illustration of the imperfection of the human mind 
is seen in the readiness with which the loss of a loved friend or 
relative inspires the belief that there will be a union in some future 
life. That there is in certain cases, we are quite sure; but not in 
.all cases. The intensity of grief is purely a nervous condition. 
We asked a man of excellent judgment what to him was the 
strongest proof or indication of immortality, and he said: "The 
love of the mother for her child." — The answer was one of peculiar 
force. It struck the closest relationship of earth. — "Are animals 
immortal?" we ventured to ask him. — "Certainly not/' was the 
reply. We then took him to a cage where a lioness was nursing 
her young cub. We studied the pair for a whole day. The ten- 
derness of affection displayed by the human mother, her deep, 
earnest, intense love, cannot and does not excel the passionate 
idolatry that the animal, tame or savage, exhibits for its offspring. 

A mild tempered female dog, belonging to a neighbor, 
•actually laid down her life for her pups when danger threatened 
them; yet, under all other circumstances, she was a coward and 
runaway if assailed. There are instances without number of heroic 
battles fought by animals in behalf of their young. Every hunter 
knows how the exigencies change when the little lives are the stake 
for which the savage mother fights. In bird nature the principle 
goes farther. Two of the feathered species unite their fortunes 
and build their home by joint effort. The wanton shot of some 
boy kills one of the happy pair. The mate misses him; there is 
the flying about, the call of anguish, the waiting in vain, the 
pleading, piping tones of despair that awaken our hearts to a full- 
ness of sympathy; and then the long night settles down over that 
nest of mourning, where perhaps little ones tuck themselves more 
closely under the wings of their mother, because death has chilled 
the hallowed sanctity of their home, and they must grieve together. 
Do you imagine that the mother-bird, who saw her winged lover 
sail brightly forth in the morning, and who sought his return in 
vain at evening, does not suffer as deeply as the human parent for 
such loss? If the time of animal mourning is shorter, it is due to 
their limited memory and their lesser rank in the mental scale. 

Association begets affection in some cases ; but it is no 
more fervent in human 'life than in the animal world. Much, of 
course, depends upon the quality of the individual. Thus, two 
dogs that have been raised together, suffer intensely on being 



218 



IMMORTALIT Y 



parted. In one case, where death had stricken a canine, his mate 
refused to eat, but perished of hunger over the simple grave. In 
another case a dog that had been permitted to become the com- 
panion of a horse, fought hard to save the latter from the flames 
of a burning barn; but, being unsuccessful, threw himself upon the- 
hot coals that surrounded the corpse, and so perished. In still 
another case, a lamb that had been put in an enclosure with a. 
cow, became so attached to the latter that nothing but force could 
separate them; and, when the inevitable sundering occurred, the- 
lamb refused to eat, and died of starvation. Had it been a human 
friend, the diagnosis would have been a broken heart. All lambs 
love companionship, and feel keenly any kind of separation. 

If a relative comparison be made between members of 
the human family and the lesser animal, allowing for the mental 
capacity of each, the real and sincere display of grief and harrowing 
sorrow over the breaking of friendships will be found to favor the 
brute creation by a very large margin. Their memories are shorter 
by nature, but the}' moan and mourn a long time in some instances, 
and there is never a doubt of the genuineness of it. Persons who 
have not carefully studied their natures, are not aware of what 
depth their sufferings may take. One needs to live with them in 
order to know them. Some explanations have been tendered by 
scientists which seek to maintain that the animal grief is akin to 
the human for the reason that the animals are part of the universal 
fund of life, of which man is another portion; or, in other words, 
that all created life sprang from a common source, and should 
therefore have dispositions alike. "We are all one family," says 
a biologist. 

Thus it is seen that humanity is no more loving or affec- 
tionate than the brute creation; and, if this exhibition of an exalted 
nature is proof of a life to come, then the argument admits all ani- 
mals, savage or tame, to immortal existence. But, you may say, 
a human being is more valuable than a horse, a clog or a bird." Is 
this true? Come to ^"ew York City, and divide its population into 
two classes, each of equal numbers. In the first division put the 
best men, women and children that can be found in that metrop- 
olis. In the second division place the other half. The line will 
not be drawn along the boundary limits of wealth or education. 
Poverty will be no barrier to entering the better division. In 
the second class you will find the cultured human devils, the uni- 



THE PURPOSE OF LOVE 



219 



versity graduates who control bars and gambling dens, the women 
of good or bad families who live by prostitution, the scavengers 
and sewerage dippers who write for the newspapers, the thieves 
of politics, and the slums of crime; which, if all were put together 
and stirred vigorously, would make the most unsavory dish that 
the infernal master could dump into the bottomless pit of hell. 
Are they worth more than animals? The songsters of the air, 
whose notes are trilled to the tune of love, know no wrong. They 
are innocent. The horse is a faithful slave, ever tendering his 
services to man for his comfort and profit. The dog at his worst 
is a far superior animal to the drunken brute who, leering from 
above his beer-soaked breath, strikes his wife and brutally maims 
his baby children. It is true, and a solemn and awful truth, that 
a majority of the human race are far more despicable and worthless 
than a majority of the brute creation; and it cannot be argued that 
they present higher types of affection by reason of superiority. 

Death severs some golden ties, where the noblest love is 
found. There are friendships in this life, in rare cases to be sure, 
where pure unselfishness, loyalty and devotion predominate; where 
death can never be forgotten as the cruel knife that loosed the 
heart's blood, and spilled it over the pitying earth. We know of 
such lives. The woman of ninety, whose husband died sixty-five 
years ago; who cherished his memory by daily tributes to the love 
he gave her, is in sad contrast with the wife who wore black for a 
year because it suited her complexion, and then turned her back 
on the past memories forever. The devotion of Chester A. Arthur, 
when President of the United States, to the wife who was not there 
to share his honors with him; the wreathing of her picture in 
garlands of flowers that bore the kisses of his love; the mute com- 
munion of his soul, living, with hers, departed, are touching proofs 
of the better side of humanity. 

The mother places her dead son in the grave, impresses 
the last token on his cold lips, and sees the coffin lid shut down Over 
the shrunken features. From that moment of despair she lifts 
her heart and voice to God, and asks if she shall meet her boy 
again. The multitude answers yes, in tones and looks that indi- 
cate a temper of disgust at so simple a question; and so the world 
goes on, assuming as facts the profoundest mysteries of life. It is 
said to be cruel if death can part forever two loving hearts; if there 
is no meeting in another world. The word cruel may have one 



220 



IMMORTALITY 



meaning in the vocabulary of the human mind, and another in the 
vocabulary of the universe. There is no cruelty half equal to that 
which innocent nature inflicts wantonly upon the races of earth. 

A man or woman should stop somewhere in life and ask 
the question honestly, "Do I believe what I profess to believe?''* — 
If there is a conscious existence beyond the grave, the bounds of 
ignorance will be overstepped, and knowledge will take the place 
■of speculation. In that waking the mistakes of this life will mount 
upon our vision like clouds of the largest magnitude: and all be- 
cause people are incapable of believing the truth on earth. Im- 
perfect minds fail to grasp the real facts. As we write, there are 
before us three letters, all written in confidence to the author, 
and all from clergymen of prominence in three of the leading de- 
nominations of this country. One says: "My wife is dead, my 
home is blasted. I have preached the doctrine of my religion as 
best I could. I have led many hundreds to a better life. I will 
go on in my work while I live. But I am in doubt. My own 
people, the theologians of my sect, the schools and universities that 
train us to be ministers, are undermining my faith. The theolog- 
ical schools tell us that the Bible came through the channels of 
human imperfections; and all educated preachers know that to be 
true, but do not dare to state it openly. Yet the same writings are 
our only hope of immortal life. Doubt is everywhere prevalent. 
Will I ever see my dead wife again, living and happy? My faith 
is enveloped in a cloud." — To him we replied that the Bible, as 
God inspired it, could never be undermined: and we referred him 
to the doctrines presented in the final chapters of this volume. 
The second letter says: "I cling to the Gospel and preach it, be- 
cause, were it not with us, there is nothing to take its place. Yet 
my life is full of doubts. * * * Xo power of persuasion can make 
me believe that the wicked-doers of this world are saved at once 
after death or ultimately through purging of their sins. It is con- 
trary to my convictions, for it is contrary to sense, to the Bible, to 
every evidence at our command. I do not believe it. The Bible 
says they are destiwed. I believe that. Now comes the doubt. 
If only the good are saved, what happiness can they have in an- 
other world, when their loved ones, the wicked-doers, are de- 
stroyed? The wayward brother, the erring son, the tenderly loved 
friend that fell because of nature, — we want them in Heaven, or 
we shall be eternally punished in the knowledge of their punish- 



THE PURPOSE OF LOVE 



221 



ment. There is but one solution of this problem — we must be 
born again. What kind of heresy is it for me to believe that the 
words of Christ meant just exactly what they said — 'Ye must be 
born again?' There is no escape from this conclusion. I believe 
sincerely that God has not yet completed the creation of the 
human race." — To him we replied that there was a growing belief 
among the best educated Christians that Christ came on earth to 
announce the final step in the vital progress of the earth; and we 
made reference to the doctrines stated in the closing chapters of 
this book. The third letter presents a new line of doubt. It says: 
"When I preach against sin, against dishonesty in business, against 
gambling, intemperance, horse-racing and other evils, I am repri- 
manded in looks or private discussion for meddling with secular 
matters. My own church members fail to sustain me. I often 
compare what I know to be the honest religion of a generation ago 
with the insincerity of to-day. Other ministers complain of it. 
The times are rapidly undergoing a moral change, and for the 
worse. It is popular to preach that the world is growing better; 
it suits the tastes of the rapid classes. The truth is, the people are 
becoming careless; and a small percentage only of the regular wor- 
shippers are sincere in their pretensions. I feel that the morals of 
the race are soon to come to that condition which preceded the 
flood of !N"oah's time. God is not so close to us as formerly/' — To 
him we replied that present conditions cannot continue; that 
change and progress have marked each era of the earth's history; 
and that every advance toward a higher plane has been immediately 
preceded by a special depression. By these and other statements, 
through which we have ascertained many facts, as we have many 
advisers and collaborators, it is quite clear that the very men whose 
example of faith should encourage their followers, are themselves 
prey to the severest doubts. 

Love is not proof of immortality. In whatever guise we 
find it; whether the kinship of blood, the attachment of friends, 
or the guardianship of God; there is no indication of anything more 
than the operation of certain laws of perpetuation. The love of 
the mother is universal; and all exceptions are abnormal. It is 
found in equal proportionate strength among rats, wolves, hens, 
cows and other species of brute creation, as well as among the 
human class. Geology tells thousands of interesting stories, but 
not one word of love; yet geology is the true history of the preced- 



222 



IMMORTALITY 



ing stages of immortality; its finger Has ever pointed in one direc- 
tion. Were it not for the close care of every maternal parent, there 
would be no safety to the offspring; and that necessity which is 
called love is but a part of the greater law of the preservation of the 
race. We admit that love of the mother for the child is intense 
and unceasing; but this is the guaranty that the offspring will be 
cared for as tenderly as it requires. The most helpless life is that 
of the child. It has no self-dependence for several years. The 
young of many animals need but little care, and they receive but 
little love. The very helplessness and dependence of a child will 
awaken love in the heart of its father even, if there is the least 
spark of humanity existing; but paternal affection, deep as it may 
be, can never equal the all-surpassing devotion of a mother. The 
sympathy of blood is too close a relationship to be readily over- 
thrown. 

It is sad to see our loved ones go down to death. The 

loss of a companion or relative is a shock to the very life of one who 
had admitted the stricken heart to the sanctity of an unselfish 
adoration. It stops the world for a time. The universe seems 
paralyzed. Out through the blue of an awful sky, the strained soul 
beholds the Euler of fate standing with drawn knife and uplifted 
arm aiming the cruel blow relentlessly; but time resumes its course; 
the universe is once more active, and soon the mind emerges from 
its grief, and realizes that the law of life is ever mowing down its 
victims without mercy, and totally oblivious of the love that seeks 
to hold them together. This law has been doing its worst for 
many thousands of years. On the surface of this rolling globe 
there have been enacted in more millions of homes than can ever 
be counted, the terrible repetitions of death, the separation of 
hearts that melt into each other with love, and the horrible agonies 
of sickness, the tortures of disease, and bloody frights of murder. 
Sometimes there have been no homes; nothing but the ice plains 
of the north, or the burning fields of the south. Long ages before 
civilization gave the impulse of architecture to man, children were 
born on the open ground, and parents perished in unsheltered and 
inhospitable tracts of earth, fighting the elements from above and 
the savage foes from about them. Love existed then, and suffered 
as keenly as now; but no hand of mercy tempered the cruel blows 
that fell. 

It is not true that suffering is an agency of chastise- 



THE PURPOSE OF LOVE 



223 



ment which is inflicted as a mark of love. It is nothing but the 
cry of nature seeking to free herself from the imperfections that 
attend her progress toward the goal for which she strives. It is 
nothing more, nothing less. This anguish is everywhere mani- 
fested. It suits itself exactly to conditions, and meets them as they 
are. It shows no favor to the rich or gracious. A long career of 
moral conduct does not exempt one from the ravages of disease, 
the sufferings of death, or the loss of friends. It seems sometimes 
as though the good are made to pass through more cruel ordeals 
than the wicked; but the fact is, that the laws of life go right on- 
ward in their operations, and meet the conditions as they find them. 

There is but one conclusion to this matter, and that is 
this: the earth of to-day is a graduate of the earth of the geological 
yesterday, and is a forerunner of the future. A ball shot from a 
cannon's mouth cannot go more steadily and more accurately to 
its goal than this planetary existence is tending to its destiny. 
The word perfect means completion; the word imperfect means 
lack of completion. That which is unfinished has defects from 
necessity. Instead of charging the unfortunate human beings who 
sin with wilful and malicious turpitude, the more just, or at least 
the more merciful, plan is to attribute all shortcomings to the im- 
perfections of nature. When mankind is perfect, the progress of 
the earth's development will have come to an end. 



CHAPTER XXII. 



POSITION OF THE PRESENT RACE. 



L J 

THE goal of existence will be reached through the 
present race of humanity. 
This is the 632d Ralston Principle. It asserts the inten- 
tion of the Creator to accomplish His purpose by the aid 
of the men and women now living. This of itself would not be 
tantamount to saying that the individuals now living will them- 
selves open the era of which we speak. A million will die while 
this page is being written. The import of the principle is such 
that it may as well apply to the vertebrate animals of long ages 
ago, as to the human vertebrates of to-day. 

Existence is a river whose earliest stream was a dripping 
rivulet that washed the forest rock, and came forth to join the 
brook from which it meandered on to larger action. If the Creator 
of that river made the ocean for its goal, every part of the stream 
would serve as factor to the end. So humanity stands in the same 
service to-day. How near we are to the end is a question reserved 
for a later chapter. That Ave are nearer than the brute-savage of 
fifty thousand years ago, is true on its face, for we are occupying a 
higher plane than he did, and as much higher as his was above the 
ape creation. That the latter was nearer to the end than the 
vertebrate quadrupeds, is likewise true on its face. The same may 
be said of every step in the scale of progress. In this way it is 
true that, if there is a goal of existence, it will be reached through 
the present race of humanity. The thought has but little value 
unless the end is practically in sight at this time. We do not wish 
to know that sometime, in a far remote era, a more advanced 
humanity, using us for stepping stones, will acquire an inheritance 
that we most earnestly sought and lost. 

[ —633~ ] 

The race is maintained by special design. 

This is the 633d Ralston Principle. It represents a fact of 

(224) 



POSITION OF THE PRESENT RACE 



225 



snch importance that it, of itself alone, proves the existence of 
God. The atheistic idea of accidental and haphazard creation is 
disputed and challenged at every point. It has not a single fact 
to sustain it. On the other hand, the earth teems with evidences 
of special design; and the language of purpose is plainly uttered 
in every act that concerns the preservation of man. The ordinary 
individual speaks in words coined in the mouth; the dumb person 
uses signs; the old Egyptians are talking to us to-day through their 
hieroglyphics; the Greek through their sculpture; geology by its 
fossil-crowded rocks; but God uses the language of special design, 
and expresses Himself so clearly that little doubt could exist in the 
.minds of the common ignorant masses, and none in the minds of 
those who think. 

Words are thoughts and thoughts make language. Words 
consist of letters, and letters were once facts. The signs of hiero- 
glyphic Egyptian are things from life, or known to life. The 
characters of the Chinese alphabet are pictures arranged to convey 
connected ideas. Our own letters originated in drawings of things 
that became concentrated illustrations; now they are absolute 
characters, but they summon facts as clearly as do pictures. The 
word horse lives in the mind as an animal; house, as a structure; 
haze, as a fog; and so on through all the language. Speech is, 
therefore, but a reproduction of things and facts. 

If a strange being of intelligence should go to the moon 
and find there certain strata of rock in which were imbedded the 
skeletons of animals, he would be justified in assuming that such 
life had once existed on that orb; and if he should find the bones of 
men, women and children, he could with certainty read the story 
of a race of humans who must have existed there at some time. 
This is language. It is the best of lauguage, for it never tells 
an untruth. If a man, hidden in a cellar, were to hear words 
distinctly spoken in the rooms and halls above him, he might con- 
clude that there were living persons in the house, unless he was 
deceived by his senses. If sure of being awake, and free from 
ghostly phenomena, he would be convinced of the fact that there 
were persons in the rooms above. Presently he hears the doors 
open and close, and footsteps descend the stairs. Here the in- 
cidents are language to him. He goes up to the floors where 
voices and walking had been heard, and sees plates, utensils, knives 
and forks, and other indications of the actual presence of individ- 



226 



IMMORTALITY 



, uals, not animals. These bits of language would convince any 
mind, or any jury, however careful or critical, of the facts behind 
them. They are proofs, and proofs positive. 

So in the language of special design, we find conclusive 
evidence of the existence of the Creator and of His works. More 
than this, we find absolute proof of His purpose. The importance 
of this evidence is too great to be passed over lightly. It is en- 
hanced by the fact that it is a living language, uttering the thoughts 
and the plans of God in the moments that are passing. By special 
design is meant an intended adjustment of nature to the needs of 
the human race; with the adjustment clear and explicit, and the 
intention expressing a purpose that cannot be misunderstood. 
Wherever we see such manifestations, we may be sure of the voice 
of the Creator speaking in the language of this special design. 

There are three possibilities in existence ; one is that of 
aimless life, another is that of evolution working out its ends in 
whatever results may be achieved, and the other is a definite pur- 
pose tending toward a goal. If the first is true, the race of life 
would have been cut off without possibility of renewal under the 
accidents of nature; for nothing is easier than to end the delicate 
fabric called living. One sweep of gas released from its imprison- 
ment would terminate all life in a minute, and send the ball rolling 
idly through the sky. There is nothing on which to found the 
theory of aimless creation, and a thousand facts to contradict it. 
The second possibility is the most serious, for it introduces a doc- 
trine called heredity, which is supposed to account for everything. 

Under the theory of heredity we are told that all tastes, 
desires, yearnings, hopes, loves, accomplishments and special powers 
have come to mankind, as white spots come to cows, by inheritance. 
Thus if a child, who has never heard a spoken word, should be left 
to itself, its larynx would commence to make voice and speech 
without instruction; and evolutionists tell us that this faculty comes 
from heredity, and not from the creative act of God; that heredity 
is a developed tendency urged on by necessity in the ancestry of 
the possessor of the faculty. By this doctrine it is claimed that the 
horse, dog, snake, flea, elephant, bird, and man are simply varia- 
tions of an original predecessor. The different shapes are said to 
be due to different uses of the faculties; and the steady bettering of 
life is chargeable to the survival of the best individuals in the con- 
flicts of existence, and the mating of the victors. These claims are 



POSITION OF THE PRESENT RACE 



227 



true in large degree, but are incidents rather than causes of pro- 
gress. It is true that the weak and sickly portion of humanity has 
been destroyed by physical superiors in the ages past; and, in the 
animal kingdom, the same law is always at work. It is also true 
that the better specimens of bird, brute and smaller life are at- 
tracted to each other in marriage, thus leaving the meaner classes to 
dwindle through physical and brain inferiority. But among the 
intelligent portion of the civilized races of to-day the possession 
of brawn is generally a bar to marriage with the best expression of 
culture. Impure blood and disease, racked constitutions and frail 
nerves are progenitors of the leading types of men and women. 
Thus now, as always, the height of civilization is but a curve that 
continues downward as it moves onward. 

No person has a right to discard the theory of evolution 
without examination. Its claims are partly true, and this leads to 
a belief that they are all true. In the latter case it would be easy 
to account for all creation if two things could be explained: 
who started creation, and why was it started? Evolution leaves 
these unanswered. It is, however, undeniable that a partial in- 
vestigation of the claims of evolution will tend to unthrone a 
belief in God and the Bible and that, when the investigation has 
proceeded a great way, the very doctrine itself of evolution strength- 
ens one's belief in G-od and the Bible. A body of English scientists, 
the greatest in the world, declared that evolution had convinced 
them of the existence of a Creator, and had changed them from 
infidelity to a belief in a personal God; but that the traditional 
account in Genesis deterred them from accepting the Bible as an 
authoritative work. Thereupon, the great English Church, the 
leading Protestant organization of the world, declared that a belief 
in the Mosaic account of creation was not necessary to a belief in 
God or in Christ's religion, and that such belief may be expunged 
from the creed. Information regarding this change may be found 
in the Encyclopedia Britannica, and in the works of Dean Earrar. 
the leading representative of Christianity in England. Thus God 
has been relieved of an absurdity for which He was not responsible: 
although, in our belief, the account in Genesis is merely intended 
as a beautiful poem and no more, as stated by the President of 
Cornell University. 

The partial truth of the doctrine of evolution has made the 
whole claim seem plausible; but it does not account for the origin 



228 



IMMORTALITY 



of the human race, nor of an}" life: nor for the purpose and destiny 
of creation. It deals with the one question of the process of 
variation whereby every kind of life is developed from an original 
specimen. It does not sa}* who put this specimen on earth; nor why 
it was put here; nor how an humble bit of protoplasm had power 
in itself to unfold so much as it did. It does not tell by what magic 
a clumsy shell-fish could of itself send traveling down the epochs 
of earth's history the sublime ideal of full-fledged manhood. Herein 
evolution fails, and its failure is complete. It may well demonstrate 
the origin of a dog out of a wolf, or a bird out of a reptile, for one is 
the milder form of the other. The dog is no more intelligent than 
the wolf, and the bird no more than the snake. But man is a 
different being from a clam, and his wonderful faculties are not 
shut up in a shell-fish. There is no rhizopod of to-day that is 
destined to act as ancestor for a future man. The thing essential 
is to explain why so much can be evolved from so little. Ad- 
mitting, as four essentials, that a personal God is necessary to fur- 
nish the impulse of this process, and to direct its results, as well as 
to start and close it, we find nothing left in the theory of evolution 
except the skeleton of change; and all scientists of rank do admit 
the four essentials we have named, and do rest their doctrine on 
the skeleton of mere change. This being true, there is nothing- 
to evolution except method of growth. This appears, by well- 
established testimony, to be at work always, but its labors are con- 
fined to the narrow limits of species; or, in other words, there is no 
evidence of evolution except in the range of species. 

The third possibility in existence is a definite purpose 
tending toward a goal. It directly contradicts the theory of aim- 
less life. It does not conflict with evolution in so far as evolution 
is true; and doubtless makes use of that doctrine for furthering its 
ends. The best proof of a definite purpose in the creation of life 
is found in the four essentials of evolution: 

1. A personal God is necessary to furnish the impulse of 
evolutionary growth. 

2. A personal God is necessary to direct that impulse in its 
unfolding. 

3. A personal God is necessary to start all life or to set in mo- 
tion the impulse of development. 

4. A personal God is necessary to bring evolution to a close 
in an expressed finality. 



POSITION OF THE PRESENT RACE 



229 



By the very essentials of evolution wo find ourselves 
proving, in part at least, our third possibility in existence; that is, 
a definite purpose tending toward a goal. But, above all these 
avenues of demonstration, are the words of God's language spoken 
in the thousands of special adjustments of nature to man's needs. 
It is of these that we will speak. Let us first catch the words 
spoken; then interpret the language they express, and finally trace 
them to the mouth and heart of the Great Creator. This is easy 
to one who will give ordinary attention to the matter. The sur- 
prise is that men have so long walked on the crust of the earth 
without knowing the history engraved on the strata beneath, and 
have so long been part of the language of omnipotent creation, and 
not translated the volume of words into living testimony. The 
proofs of God's existence and of man's destiny are found in the 
many evidences of special design. A few of these will be examined 
at this place. 

The first evidence of special design is found in the posi- 
tion of the earth in the sky. It is far away from all influences ex- 
cept that of the solar system, and is thus independent. It is not so 
close to the sun as Mercury or Yenus, and consequently is not in 
danger of being scorched by excessive heat; for the vertical summer 
rays would make life impossible. It is not so far away as the great 
planets that swing in the outer circuits; for then the cold would be 
so intense that life would freeze. If any other orb in our system 
carries life it must be Mars, for the conditions are favorable there. 

The prevention of collision in the sky, which guarantees 
to the earth its immunity from destruction, is another evidence of 
special design. It is said that this is accounted for by the law of 
gravity; but no one can tell what this law is, how it originated, or 
who decreed it. Yet gravity alone cannot settle the question of 
the earth's protection, for it would quickly bring all the orbs into 
the sun where they would perish. It serves to keep the earth in 
its orbit, and without it we would ride off into unknown space. It 
keeps the earth in the solar system; and, to counteract its effort in 
this direction, another law prevents the bodies of the orbs from 
flying into each other's embrace. This is said to be the law of 
centrifugal motion; but it is doubtful if such a law can serve to hold 
the worlds in place. Yo illustrative experiment has ever been 
made to prove that loose running orbs can be endowed with power 
to resist attraction by outflowing momentum. Yet, in this con- 



230 



IMMORTALITY 



neetion, it is not material to the question. The great fact is the 
holding off the orbs from the power of the sun. Whatever may 
be the law at work, the magnitude of care that inspired that law is 
the marvel that wins our attention. To hold the earth in its place 
in the solar system by the law of attraction, and to prevent that 
law from drawing it too far into the domain of the sun by an op- 
posite law, is certainly no haphazard or accidental drifting of mat- 
ter. It is design, clear, strong and convincing. It is evidence of 
the adjustment of nature to the needs of existence. It is as much 
the work of a mind, planning to overcome difficulties, as is the 
struggle of a boy to get a table through a doorway by laying it on 
its side, thrusting in the legs first, and turning it about to over- 
come the narrowness of the passage. Let the balance made by 
these two laws of the solar system be suspended for a time, and our 
fair planet would take up the motion it had already acquired, and 
proceed out into space, a helpless and godless wanderer. We would 
wonder what had happened to the sun, for it would diminish in 
size; but the moon would go with us. The atmosphere would grow 
colder and colder, the sky would fill with ice clouds, the snow 
would fall even upon the tropical zones, and the rivers would 
freeze, to flow again no more. There would be no returning spring, 
but winter would prolong its stay amid the gloom of perpetual 
snow and ice. The fuel would be piled upon the fires, and double 
windows put upon the houses to retain all the warmth possible. 
Down would go the thermometer, down below zero, while the sleet 
blew hard against the second stories: down to Manitoba coldness: 
down to arctic freezing, with the white drifts as impassable barriers, 
effectually placing siege upon the domestic forts. Good-by and a 
long farewell to the sun, now peculiarly small; for soon the exist- 
ence of the earth would close in a grave of ermine covering all 
evidences of life and habitation. How many millions of years this 
icy casket would float in space, we could not tell: but it would 
travel lightly on, carrying its two thousand million human bodies 
lying in homes congealed beneath the pleasant mantle of the snow. 
"What burial could be more beautiful? In time the globe would 
roll into the domain of other sun-systems, and there collide with 
some mighty wanderer; unless the laws of heavenly balance were 
restored, in which case it would take an orbit of its own about some 
foreign sun, and surprise the local astronomers of another earth 
with its intrusion into their constellations. 



POSITION OF THE PRESENT RACE 



231 



The unbroken perpetuity of life is another evidence of 
special design. This is seen in the history of existence as related 
by geology. While here and there certain omissions occur, they 
never come in the direct line of the narrative. It can be well and 
truly said that geology to-day is a complete, connected and un- 
broken succession of events from the earliest life down to the pres- 
ent era. Not a page is missing. Through all the changes and 
the onward flight of action, there has been no break in the succes- 
sion and no cutting off of life to begin over again. Had. not God 
planned and maintained this continuity, creation would have gone 
to pieces dozens of times. There would have been the breaking of 
the thread, the mixing of forces with annihilating effects, the sud- 
den ending of all existence, and the new fiat of creation starting it 
all over again. 

Instead of such results we find that one era passes on to 
another, and transmits its progress to a succession able to maintain 
it. It is true that there are species that perish, as in the case of 
the trilobites that flourished in a wealth of abundance, and then 
subsided until they became extinct. We have also spoken of the 
Appalachian revolution, in which all species suffered annihilation, 
not one surviving; but before they gave up their existence, new 
species sprang into being, probably through transmission, or by 
their nurture; for man even could have been nursed by vertebrate 
quadrupeds before his race had secured a foothold on the planet. 
No break at any time has ever occurred. Even according to the 
Bible .account, Adam did not come upon the earth without prede- 
cessors, for his son found a wife waiting for him in another land, 
and among other people. Then, when the universal wickedness of 
the inhabitants was intolerable, and God destroyed them, He saved 
out four married couples, and pairs of all kinds of animal life, in 
order to avoid the trouble of commencing over again. That Noah 
and his children were very deficient in morals, may be seen in their 
own after history, and in the kind of people that claim to be des- 
cended from them. 

The continual bettering of life is strong evidence of special 
design. Were existence accidental, or Avere its progress dependant 
upon no purpose, there would be steps of depression and ascension 
in every possible way, and an aimless drift hither and thither. But 
this is not seen. You can make a ladder, or a staircase, as regular 
as skill can draw it; and let each step rise above each other in uni- 



232 



IMMORTALITY 



form succession, and you will not more certainly illustrate progress 
steadily tending upward, than nature has done in the steps of 
development from the dawn of created existence up to the present 
epoch. That there should be progress, is of itself surprising, for 
this could not have happened without design; but that the progress 
should be steady and unbroken, is full of wonderment. Xo man 
of contemplative disposition can think of the fact of a constant 
bettering of life without standing in amazement before the possi- 
bilities of the future. Dropping backward, period by period, we 
see the lowering steps of this succession of changes; looking for- 
ward we find, as each searcher of the past has found, a solid veil; 
but we know that every step behind us has been succeeded by one 
higher; we know that this era is one of the steps, and we are fully 
warranted in believing that the next will, like all the others, be 
one higher. The bettering process has been going on in all the 
past, is in its operation to-day, and will not stop with man unless 
man is perfection; for the goal ahead is sublime. If you are ascend- 
ing Mount Washington in a car, and the car is steadily propelled 
upward over well-laid rails, you feel sure that a personal power is 
actively ' engaged in raising the load to the top, and you are con- 
vinced that some intelligence laid the track for this very purpose. 
So is it true that the uplifting of earthly life has behind it the 
propelling force of a personal power and a thinking mind. If near 
the top you come to a rest amid the clouds and see the track 
running on toward a higher end, whose view is obscured, you will 
feel positive that the brain that laid the track so well and sent the 
car so far along the ascent, did not intend to leave the work un- 
finished and imperfect; for in that case, the entire enterprise is 
crowned with failure. You know that the resting engine will 
resume its course; and, above the clouds, among the flooding sun- 
rays, the goal stands waiting its welcome for the traveler. 

Another strong evidence of special design is seen in the 
intense energy of the reproductive powers. If man was not in- 
tended as the channel through which the next step is to be taken, 
he would not be used so blindly to himself as the agent of preserv- 
ing the species. While the sexual passion is strong among ani- 
mals, the coldness of reception on the part of the female is a 
check to the male; but this is not so with human beings. The man 
may at most any time master the woman, either by solicitation, or 
by urgent aggression. The female animal decides for herself; and 



POSITION OF THE PRESENT RACE 



233 



when she says nay, it so remains. There is no rape or assault with 
such intent among cats, dogs, horses, bovines, sheep, lions, tigers, 
birds, or other species below man. Even the gorilla, the chim- 
panzee, the monkey, bows in silence and retires from the sought 
conquest. 

It is true that all lesser life is subsidiary to man, or be- 
neath him; and what he possesses in strong degree, they might own 
in slighter resemblance; but the clear determination of nature to 
keep the human race alive far outranks all instincts of the kind 
in other life. When the boy or girl reaches puberty, the fluids 
flow along the nerves from heart to brain, from brain to the sexual 
system, and back again to the heart. Thus all three are affected 
and united. To the pure and innocent boy, the new impulse is 
somewhat startling. The mind is made an abject tool of passion. 
The excitement throbs along the nerves until they cry out. The 
pressure upon some delicate fibre sends a fire of feeling to the heart, 
and dreams by day and night devour his whole existence, until it is 
sensitive to the last degree. Then comes some maiden along, 
suffering from the same budding of puberty, suffused in face and 
flushing with color; she lifts her burning eyes to the young man's, 
and he is lost. There is magnetism in the interchange of those 
electric glances, which draws the two sexes together. The appetite 
lags day after day, the studies are suspended, sleep is a harem of 
rare dreams, and all the architecture of this immense universe 
stands ready to topple before the important advance of this new 
phase of creation. Nothing like it has ever been known before or 
since. Such is love. 

Love is a part of the plan of nature to perpetuate the 
races. It appears as inter-sexual. Destroy this attribute, and 
poetry must perish; so would the deviltry of the gods of Greek and 
Roman mythology fall to nothingness. There are some instances 
where the sexual love has ripened into a lasting devotion, which 
seems to indicate that the persons so related are on the bright side 
of the moral line referred to in later chapters of this book; but when 
any theorist asserts that the passion of puberty is a type of holy 
affection, instead of a mere scheme of nature to reproduce the race, 
he is stranded on the shoal of a stupendous error. 

The tricks of pregnancy furnish further evidence of spe- 
cial design, in that they decree the purpose of the Creator to use 
the present race as the channel of approach to the next step in 



234 



IMMORTALITY 



existence. If we wish to buy a house, sell certain property, or do 
other acts of deliberation, we make our plans, and execute them by 
order of the will; but of all the children that have come into the 
world, ninety ]Der cent, have appeared as unbidden and forbidden 
guests. One man writes: "We have rive children, 'all young. The 
first one we desired: the other four came contrary to our plans and 
attempts to prevent."' — This is the experience of nearly all families. 
Those who most ardently wish for offspring are those who see no 
hope of getting them. Nature is full of mentality, and this is 
evidence of a divine purpose at work. We call her efforts tricks; 
but the)" are wiser forms of wisdom than the profoundest philos- 
opher's experience. 

If a mathematician adds two to two, he is sure of the 
result; but if he says that the ovum of his wife passes forth in a 
stated limit of time, and consequently pregnancy is impossible, he 
may come face to face with a result quite contrary to his calcula- 
tion; for nature is capable of maturing, between times, an ovum 
that comes down the fallopian tube to meet the life coming up. 
This is a trick of hers. So the lad who knows the secret of pre- 
vention by incompletion of the orgasm, is trapped by his repeti- 
tion within a few hours: which accounts for more surprises than 
any other cause. Then the carelessness a short time before ap- 
proaching menstruation is answerable for other cases. But there is 
a slyness in this entrapment in the months following child-birth, 
generally when the nursing period has just ceased; for strongly 
sexed couples may take all the precautions they please, even refus- 
ing to complete the act, and nature will draw forth the seed in 
spite of what, mathematically considered, is a physical impossi- 
bility. It is true that a majority of mothers have been so caught, 
in some cases the most careful breed oftener than the most careless. 

Another evidence of special design is seen in the intense 
love of offspring that is imparted to all maternal parents, from the 
meanest animal to the human mother. This we have mentioned in 
a previous chapter. The father, except among mated birds, is not 
as a rule solicitous of the safety of the young; but the human father 
is often an ardent worshipper of the little one. This speaks well 
of our race. In savage countries the male parent is almost always 
a profound hater of the child, and consents to have it destroyed. 
The custom of throwing babies into the river Ganges, and of killing 
them as sacrifices to propitiate the gods, is one of convenience to 



POSITION OF THE PRESENT RACE 



235 



the men who wish to avoid the duties of providing for and protect- 
ing them; for men make the customs in barbarous countries. 
Among the supposed peoples of highest civilization there are sav- 
ages who are annnoyed at the prattle of the little blessings of home, 
who came uninvited into the world, and often slip out of it as 
though to oblige those who look coldly upon their presence. But 
the love, once wakened, of either father or mother, for the little 
child descended from their bodies, is an unspeakable worship, as 
boundless and intense as the flooding sunshine of Heaven. 

The body itself from center to circumference bears many 
marks of testimony to the special design of its Creator. It exhibits 
thought in the making of it, even if some details are explainable 
under the theory of evolution. There is no doubt, in the first 
place, that a thinking power has made every lower species of crea- 
tion a stepping-stone to the higher. Man depends on the animals 
for his structure and his functions, thus showing a purposed use of 
the lesser types in bringing him into the world and sustaining him 
here. This cannot be explained by any law of accident, for it is 
not accidental. It cannot be explained by evolution, beginning 
and drifting of itself; for evolution, by its inherent principle, can- 
not begin anything, not even its own operation; and it has never 
drifted more than the imperial steamship, the palace of the ocean, 
heading for the goal desired, drifts out of its course in the attain- 
ment of that end. The use of the lower species of the animal king- 
dom, therefore, is clearly evidence of special design to bring man up 
out of the environments through which he must have passed. The 
question may be asked, Why did not God create humanity out- 
right instead of taking millions of years for the deed? The answer 
may be found in the flash of lightning. If, between its start from 
one cloud, and its end a second later in another cloud, the human 
race could have been created, the speed of that flash, however great, 
must have consumed some appreciable time. In making the earth 
and all it contains, the lapse of many millions of years to One who 
knows no time, must be as the flash of lightning. It is direct crea- 
tion, made outright, but not from nothing. 

The fact that God produces all that exists, by making use 
of something that has existed previously, and thus connects the 
great goal of the future with the murky blackness of the past, is 
another evidence of His special design. Despite the revolution of 
the Appalachian period, which ended every species that had existed, 



236 



IMMORTALiTY 



none perished until it had given its life and plan of structure to its 
successsor. This close alliance is seen in the human body. It has 
no organ or function that is not possessed by some of the lower 
animals. Its large brain, the cerebrum, is seen in the intelligent 
class of brutes, imparting mental force in proportion to its relative 
size rather than weight and bulk. The cerebellum, or small brain, 
which controls the muscular system, is of greater value to the brutes 
than to man, for they depend more on action of this kind; yet, 
in both, it operates alike. Then the medulla oblongata, or third 
brain, which controls respiration, circulation and digestion, is al- 
most universally present in life; yet its function is the same in man 
as in the lesser species. The stomach, heart, liver, kidneys, lungs, 
blood, nerves, muscles and bones are simply adaptations of the same 
functions for slightly varying uses: but all following one plan and 
one line of relationship. Their close union shows them to be of 
one idea, and the end must be the fulfilment of a single purpose. 

Special design is seen in the construction of the body, 
whether of animal or of man, and whether evolved or not. The 
idea of stiff bones is a good one, for there could be no walking, run- 
ning, standing, sitting, lifting, making, building, embracing, caress- 
ing, carrying, or other exhibition of the faculties without a stiff 
and resistant frame-work to sustain them. The pulling of a bone 
in a certain direction by a muscle attached to it for that purpose, 
and the pulling of the same bone back again by an opposite muscle, 
thus giving the two hundred bones of the human body four hun- 
dred working muscles, is not accident, nor an aimless policy. The 
design of working the muscles by their own contraction, whereby 
they are shortened and the bones moved to carry out the intention 
of the brain, is likewise design. The causing of that muscular con- 
traction by an electrical discharge: the furnishing of wires called 
nerves to carry the currents of electricity; the hourly creation and 
storing away of that electricity in the cells or ganglia of the body; 
the quick coming forth of this vital fluid at every summons from 
the brain, are accomplishments that could never have been evolved 
at random, nor conceived aimlessly; and the fact that the bettering 
of this system has been going on for millions of years, with no loss 
or set-back, shows that it will eventually reach the goal of its per- 
fection. 

The selection of food material is carried on under the 
same law of design. In plant life the very fine fibres of the finest 



POSITION OF THE PRESENT RACE 



237 



branches of the roots perform the duty of tearing into the mass of 
earth around, and drawing out the particular particles needed. It 
shows an ever ready intelligence in making the selection, for the 
rose never takes the material that the turnip needs, unless both 
require the same in common. A small precentage of the matter at 
hand is needed, and that only is taken. So, in the human stomach, 
there are similar root fibres, or nerve-terminations, that tear into 
the food, reduce it to a pulp, and then draw out just what the blood 
requires. In one case it is called sap, in another blood; but the 
duties are the same. The skill with which a due proportion of 
water is taken into the sap and into the blood is in itself remark- 
able; and the providing of that water is providential. 

But the duty of the flowing sap or blood must remain the 
crowning evidence of vital design in life. Water is the great car- 
rier of the world. Without it there could be no transportation. 
From the river-ways of animal life to the flooded ocean, there is a 
gamut of moving agencies designed by the Creator to furnish con- 
veyance to little needs and great needs alike. Across the seas the 
craft of every size are borne from port to port. Were these high- 
ways of commerce transformed to land, and all the crust of the 
earth a solid surface, there would be no rivers, for they would find 
no outlet; there would be no sources of brooks and creeks which 
feed the rivers, for there would be no rain-fall; there would be no 
clouds, no replenishings, no supply to plant life; no evaporation, 
for there would be no expanse of water to shed its moisture upon 
the atmosphere. More than this, the railway trains could not tra- 
verse the earth, for the very steam that propels them is caught from 
the water that rises in vapor from the ocean. 

There are three great methods of locomotive propulsion, 
steam, wind and electricity. All three use land and water as 
highways, though wind is natural to river, sea and ocean. Steam is 
dependent solely on water, for it is an expansion of the component 
parts of water. Electricity is dependent upon steam. All uses of 
this vigorous fluid are related to the steam engine as an originating 
power. Electric lights of all characters are produced by the finest 
and smoothest running of steam engines, although water motors 
have occasionally been employed for the same purpose. The 
storage batteries of some cars have been supplied in the same way. 
The trolley lines, or the underground system, has each a series of 
steam engines working hard to supply the currents needed. Thus 



238 



IMMORTALITY 



it is seen that all methods of locomotive propulsion, and all new 
motive powers that are supposed to be decided improvements upon 
the steam engine, are compelled to depend upon that power for 
their very existence. It all comes back to water; and this liquid is 
in universal demand. 

Returning to the human body, we see evidences of the 
constant dependence of life upon water: for we know that a large 
percentage of blood, flesh, muscle and even bone is water. In the 
circulation, as it is called, of the blood we find a series of rivers, 
great and small, engaged in transporting cargoes of material to 
every conceivable part of the body. If we watch the commerce on 
such a river as the Mississippi, we see the boats entering at the 
great delta and proceeding up stream with their freight; some go 
far to the north, others separate to the great arteries on either side, 
and smaller boats take part of the cargoes up the smaller stream. 
Thus it is with tree or plant life; and thus it is in the human 
body. The stomach is the great ocean of supply. The blood, start- 
ing from the fluid with which the food is washed, travels its mul- 
titudinous circuit for the sole purpose of carrying freight, and this 
freight is the material in the food that is eaten. The nerve-fibres 
of the stomach tear out the particles needed; the sponge-like lining- 
absorbs them in a sea of fluid, and they pass around to the back 
and then up to the heart, where they are made to join the flowing 
current of ruby milk that, once complete, they visit every portion 
of the body. They travel even through the little branches, and 
the sub-branches, to the minute veins that terminate in the skin. 
The circulation of the blood, therefore, is intended solely to carry 
food particles, converted into protoplasmic cells, to all parts of the 
system. There is no omission. The hair, teeth, eyes, nails, tongue, 
bones and all are included in this course of supply, as well as the 
whole body. A very simple law comes into play in this connection. 
It is the law of excitement and supply. The excitement is pro- 
duced by the demands of work, play or exercise. If the arm is 
moved about under greater tax of its energies, the blood, which 
always passes through every portion of the body, will leave more of 
its material in the arm to supply the waste caused by the use. In 
time this supply will more than equal the demand, and the arm 
will grow larger, especially in its muscles. It is on this principle 
that athletes, when resting for many weeks, grow unduly heavy: 
the momentum of demand has resulted in an extra supply, which 
is not wasted by use, and the body accumulates size. 



POSITION OF THE PRESENT RACE 



239 



The action of the third-brain, or medulla-oblongata, is 
clearly an evidence of special design. It controls digestion, cir- 
culation and respiration. While the cerebrum is intended to think, 
plan and order all action to be performed, and while the cerebellum 
is intended to execute the order of the thinking brain, there is a 
little world of mind concentrated in the medulla which takes charge 
of life at all times, awake or asleep. If a blow is struck that pro- 
duces unconsciousness, the thinking brain and its companion or 
executive officer, the cerebellum, are temporarily paralyzed, and 
the body would die were it not for the third brain, whose function 
it is to carry on breathing, circulation and digestion, so that life 
may remain in the body. This provision shows the desperate effort 
made to preserve the race. It had its birth in the lower animal 
kingdom, and was as necessary there as here. 

The water-system which was incidentally referred to in 
the preceding paragraphs, is as beautiful and as effective a piece 
of natural machinery as can be found in or out of the study of the 
great laws that control our fate. Operating under certain forces re- 
ferred to later, the vapor rises from the great broad expanse of sea, 
lake and ocean. This vapor is sloughed off the surface of the 
water sheets and poised in air. Designed by the Creator, the air 
and vapor are very nearly of the same weight or specific gravity, 
so that the moisture at times will fall, and again will rise, sometimes 
high, sometimes low. Its movements up and down the atmosphere 
determine the state of the weather. When the air is heavier, the 
vapors rise, when lighter, they fall. In the latter case there is 
fog; and in any case when the moisture is thrown against cold 
currents of air, it is condensed and comes to the earth as rain. 
Winds are established by special design; and, when the uplifted 
vapors are ready for their duty on the shore, they are wafted thither 
for use. They condense and fall in showers and storms, under 
special invitation of growing nature. Thus trees attract the rain 
clouds, while the barren sands do not. Look any way we will, there 
is the specific design of the Creator staring us in the face. The 
slopes of the earth favor the working out of the water system; for 
the liquid, obeying the law of gravity, runs down the hillsides and 
mountains, hunting for its level until it finds it in the sea. There 
is a general trend of rising land from the oceans to the interior. 
Even the prairies are not perfectly flat and horizontal. The State 
of Kansas is a prairie country, yet it rises gradually from its eastern 



240 



IMMORTALITY 



to its western line. Streams and creeks are everywhere abundant. 
The water seeks small rivulets, then larger ones, then branches of 
great rivers, then the mighty stream, and at last the ocean; from 
where it again rises in vapor, is wafted inland, and falls in rain 
to replenish the earth and feed the growth of plant life. This is 
the story of the ages. 

The making of soil for man's benefit is a remarkable evi- 
dence of special design. The cooled surface of the earth naturally 
turns to rock. By contraction and wrinkling, parts of the land are 
raised to furnish the great slopes toward the ocean. The falling- 
rains and running water necessarily wear away the rock, and carry 
it to the edge of the sea in the form of sand. Herein vegetation 
mingles its refuse from water growth, for the first plants were 
reared in the water, and the sand is made fertile for larger plant 
life. At the edges of streams, great lakes and seas, the first soil 
was made. Again the earth makes slopes, reversing the former 
inclinations, and the soil is washed inland, while great swamps are 
formed, and marshes lay the foundation of the forests. Tailing 
leaves, decaying vegetation and dying animals furnish the richest 
of soils. But without the rains to carry them about, there could be 
no universality of growth. The moving waters have laid all the 
principal strata of the earth, in which the cumulative aid of sun- 
rays and meteors have played a decidedly important part. When 
the layers have lain and turned again to rock, they are subject to 
the same action; and so the circuit of the ages goes on and on as 
if forever. 

A remarkable evidence of special design is the mystery 

called the attraction of gravity. It is a force that operates under 
fixed laws, yet is too deep for man's solution. What there is in 
two orbs floating in space, free from all other influences, that would 
draw them together with ever increasing energy, until they collide 
with a tremendous crash, is hard to understand. Attempts have 
been made to explain it: but all have failed. There is no chain of 
communication between the two, no attached connection, no air or 
atmosphere, no electrical fluid, no ether having attractive power 
of sufficient force; it is simply a mystery. Most laws are accounted 
for by some ingenious explanation; but the attraction of gravity 
must ever stand as an example of a direct fiat, a decree that it shall 
be so. It cannot come from evolution, for it is original, unique, 
and separable from all else. There is no way of explaining it ex- 



POSITION OF THE PRESENT RACE 



241 



cept to say that God created the law, and declared the matter should 
have an affinity for matter. If such were not the case, all particles 
would be disintegrating, separating sand: no cohesion, no union,, 
no shape. The sky would be filled with an invisible dust in which 
nothing could live. 

The very first operation of the law of gravity is seen in 
its effects on the sun's rays. These are atoms or particles of matter 
shot forth into the realms of space; once having momentum, they 
would never stop, unless the attraction of gravity held them in 
check somewhere in space. The sun itself would propel them, but 
their own affinity for each other would unite them, and thus the 
floating dust of the sky is formed. The dust particles now come 
together, and after awhile the meteors appear; these are attracted 
to one another, and the small orbs are formed, from which the 
larger ones are developed in time. All the material in space is thus 
held under surveillance and kept in bounds. It may be that this 
one law follows matter everywhere, in our own lives, as well as in 
the broader fields of space. Without it chaos would follow. Per- 
haps the command to change from chaos to order was executed by 
this one law. It is capable of so great a task. 

The effect of gravity is seen everywhere. It causes the 
moisture of the ocean to rise by making it lighter than air; the 
latter being compelled by gravity to fall or get under the watery 
vapors. Then, when condensation through cold temperatures 
causes the moisture to become heavy, the law of gravity brings it 
to the earth where it is needed. The same kind of attraction exists 
between the moon and the oceans, so that the latter are lifted up 
and the larger tides of the twenty-four hours are formed, which 
follow the moon's course around the earth, like one tidal wave; the 
secondary tides are due to the lifting of the earth itself toward the 
moon and away from under the waters of the antipodes. 

Without this law we could not exist. We could not sit 
down; for sitting down is allowing the weight of the torso to come 
down of itself to meet the chair. We stoop only because we have 
weight. We bend because of the law of attraction. We could not 
lie down, for there would be no way that we could let the body 
come to a reclining position. We could not even put the clothes 
upon the bed, or spread the linen. The attempt to lay them down 
would raise us up from the floor, and we would float. If we tried 
to pull ourselves down to the floor by catching hold of the bed post 



242 



IMMORTALITY 



or frame, we would pull it part way up and ourselves part way 
down, and both would be suspended in mid-air. So we could not 
place a chair on the floor without pushing ourselves up accordingly 
in the very act. A carpenter building a house might fasten the 
main timbers to the soil; but he could have no foundation, as the 
rocks, brick, cement and mortar would all be lighter than feathers. 
There is no way that he could get a rock to go to the surface of 
the earth, if there was no law of gravity. But supposing he sets 
the timbers in the earth, and fastens them there; by clinging to 
their sides he may mount to the top without danger of falling. 
Other material he could have at hand, as far as danger of losing it 
is concerned. The air could be full of boards; nails might be laid 
about him everywhere, at any height, and resting on nothing. His 
hammer, when not in use, he could lay upon the atmosphere, and 
take it again at his own sweet will. Imagine his saw, plane, chisel, 
axe, mitre-box, screw-driver, brace, and a multitude of other things 
in front, around, above him, all floating on nothing; his only in- 
convenience being that, when he touched one it would take its mo- 
tion and never lose it, thus passing soon out of his reach. He 
could not let go any tool so gently but it would take some motion, 
.and this it would, never lose until an obstruction stopped it. 

If there were no attraction of gravity, the dining table 
could not be set, the coal conld not be put in the stove, fire would 
not burn, for the smoke and heat would not rise; and nothing could 
be executed in life. Pianos would float; if a note were struck, the 
whole instrument would tend downward, and the player would 
rise with every blow however tiny. A man could stand in any 
part of the room from the ceiling to the floor, and never know 
weariness. He could not walk, for he could not put his foot down 
-except by muscular action, which would instantly raise him, and 
prevent his taking the next step. Having no leverage and no push 
on the air, he could not make progress, no matter what his muscles 
might attempt. He could undress, and place his necktie on an 
invisible shelf in the atmosphere, his collar near by, his coat, vest, 
trousers, shoes and stockings all around him, and they would never 
fall. The air might be thick with obstacles. There would be no 
traveling of any kind, for there would be no weight to vehicles or 
cars to keep them on the earth, and the least motion would send 
them upward. Even the revolution of the wheel of a locomotive 
■or bicycle would cause it to leave the earth, and nothing could get 



POSITION OF THE PRESENT RACE 



243 



it down again, unless everything was attached by a rope, in w hich 
case it would be impossible to move onward, for the length of the 
rope would permit an upward tendency. A small boy whipped by 
his father, if the last stroke was an under-stroke, would have mo- 
mentum, however slight, and go on upward without stop. Even 
the gentlest touch would start him in motion; on and up he would 
move, growing smaller every hour, until he was out of sight. 

Gravity keeps things to the earth. Simple as this law 
is, it required a tremendous mind to decree it, and give it univer- 
sality. It is a central force that unites all matter from the largest to 
the smallest, and makes us feel that there is a unity in the universe. 
Yet the same God that welded together the earth and all its life, so 
that there should be no disruption, placed the great sun systems of 
the sky so far apart that they should not intrude upon each other's 
domains. Our planets cannot escape from our sun; nor can any 
other orb draw them or our own system out of its place. There 
must be a dead influence, or else all systems would be drawn to- 
gether in one overwhelming crash. All this is special design. It 
is true that, if the law of gravity does not affect a spirit departing 
from a body, the departure of the soul from earth must involve a 
continuous journey uninterrupted until it found its Heaven. By 
this means the soul might take its flight under natural laws, for it 
is natural to move ever on, if gravity does not check the motion. 
We shall examine this problem in later pages of this work. 

Theforce of gravity is allied to contraction and expansion 
in such a way as to show a personal mind at work in its operation. 
Thus when the air is cold it contracts; being contracted, it becomes 
heavier; being heavier, it falls. Lighter air rises. Gravity holds 
all the atmosphere to the earth, but again separates its weights so 
as to keep it moving, and thus purifies all life as well as itself. 
Moving air is essential to health, and to growth as well as comfort. 
So with water; if the lower currents are warm, and the upper are 
cold, they interchange, and thus purify the whole mass of water. 
This little interchange is the cause of boiling, which is but a hurry- 
ing of the rarefied and lighter parts to get to the top. 

But the most surprising evidence of special design is 
seen in the reverse of this law, showing a thought within a thought, 
a mind within a mind. Cold contracts; cold water is therefore con- 
tinually seeking the bottom of the river, lake or ocean. At thirty- 
three degrees the water is close to freezing. Below thirty-two it 



244 



IMMORTALITY 



freezes. If the law of continual contraction remains in force, ice 
would fall to the bottom of the pond; the next layer would fall upon 
it; and, in a single winter, every lake, pond, river and sea would 
become a solid mass of ice, too thick to thaw out in a dozen sum- 
mers. Now it is clear that cold should and must contract and 
cause matter to fall; but it is equally clear that ice must not fall; 
so the Creator reverses the law at this point, by special design, and 
causes ice to expand and float, thus making life possible. Xo act 
of creative intervention could be more intense in its significance. 
In the language of special design, God speaks openly and directly 
to man. 

Life must have water to drink, or it will perish. The 

rivers and brooks are not always available, even if suitable. The 
ocean is unfit for use. The ponds, lakes and rivers are intended as 
basins of deposit or highways of travel, and therefore not suitable 
under most circumstances. Yet man must have water. God knew 
it in advance, and He used the strata of the earth to serve as in- 
terior channels for conveying water even hundreds of miles under 
the ground. Man taps the stratum, makes his well, and finds his 
water. Sometimes, yes often, to assist the traveler who cannot stop 
to dig a well, the strata are curved, or their dip is reversed, and the 
spring of living, pure, sparkling water is made to gush forth at the 
surface, where the thirsting stranger may see it at a glance. This 
is done by design. 

In order that the human race might not die out, special 
provisions have been made to meet exigencies. It was apparently 
designed that the race should wander forth to people the earth, 
and that the newer layers of intelligence should follow after the 
older and more barbarous. This brought the civilized Asiatics into 
Europe three thousand years ago, and the civilized Europeans into 
America four hundred years ago. On arriving at these outposts 
of advance, food would be scarce, and specific help must be at hand, 
or the migrators would starve. So game of all kinds is placed at 
man's disposal, and he is told how to secure fish, fowl and beast 
for his food. When the Pilgrim fathers landed on the bleak coasts 
of Massachusetts they did not find growing crops awaiting them; 
but were compelled to obtain their sustenance from life about them. 
A remarkable illustration of this kind provision is found in the 
struggles of prehistoric man to maintain existence against unfair 
odds. He could not always live on fish, so the Creator gave him 



POSITION OF THE PRESENT RACE 



245 



grains and berries. To-day the best grain is wheat, for it contains 
the fourteen elements required by the human body almost in the 
exact proportions needed, and it is the only grain that is so pre- 
pared. Strange to say, if accident has attended man's develop- 
ment, that this king of cereals is found among the strata of the 
time of prehistoric man, as the first grain provided for him as food. 
To-day the best fruit is the blackberry, for it is a giver of life, 
strength, vitality and brain force; yet the same kind hand gave it 
to early man, and it is honored with being the first of all fruits. 
The human race could thrive on wheat and blackberries. These 
gifts were on earth before man, and awaited his coming. They 
were not products of evolution, for it is absurd to assume that, while 
man was evolving from one line of descent, his food was evolving 
from another. Such evolution, if true, points unmistakably to the 
hand of a Creator executing the orders of a sublime mind. 

Man's wants have been attended to in many and various 
ways. If he has come up out of the lower species, there have come 
up with him all means of sustaining and protecting him. If only 
one or two of these had been found, the claim might or might not 
be made that they came by accident or coincidence; but the great 
number of provisions made for man's comfort must preclude all 
discussion of any side of the question except that of specific design. 
We cannot attempt to enumerate all these things, and will, refer 
to a few only. Man needs food, clothing and shelter. Given these, 
he is independent. For food he has been supplied with an un- 
limited variety and abundance. If starvation ever stares one in 
the face, it is clue solely to the habit of huddling in large cities, 
instead of going forth into the country and there making the earth 
yield all that is needed. Food is tempered to the wants of human- 
ity with the utmost care and management. In the hot tropics 
there are cooling fruits. In the far north there are excessive car- 
bons or heaters. In the northern parts of our own country the 
grains abound more in heating oils. Thus the yellow corn is very 
warming to the blood, while the white corn of the south is free 
from this excess of heating qualities. Nature brought this about, 
but not without a supreme mind to order it. 

Clothing is needed by the human race. To obtain such 
covering as will suit the shape of the bod} r , weaving and cutting are 
almost necessary, unless we depend upon the skins of animals: but 
these are unpleasant for undervests or night shirts. In order to 



246 



IMMORTALITY 



weave cloth, there must be threads; and in order to obtain threads,, 
there must be lines of fibre. These are provided by the cotton 
plant, from which our cotton garments are made; from the flax 
plant, from which our linen garments are made; from the wool of 
the sheep, from which our woolen garments are made; from the 
thread of the silk-worm, from which our silken garments are made. 
All these blessings are given to us by a separate provision of the 
Creator, for they are independent of any evolving descent of man. 
There is no article of wear, from the finest to the coarsest, from 
the rags of the beggar to the robes of the king, that has not been 
specially thought out in the mind of a Godlike intellect, and put 
into an executed fact by the fiat of His will. Thus while He was 
contemplating the birth of man out of a long process of develop- 
ment requiring millions of years, He was at the same time setting 
plans for the growth of food, clothing and means of shelter, so- 
that all these would be on earth at that precise time when man 
would need them. They have all developed out of a long past in 
the vegetable kingdom, as man has come from the animal king- 
dom. There is not the shadow of a doubt that a Supreme Mind 
has brought all this about by the most careful planning. 

Shelter includes protection from the wet, from the cold, 
and from the beasts that devour life. The earth lays almost at 
man's feet the very things he needs for his dwelling. If it is of 
skins, he finds them. If it is of adobe, he finds that mud when dry 
may, in certain instances, serve as blocks of building material. If 
he is savage, he dwells in rocks or caves. If he is on the frontier, 
he uses trees for the walls of his cabin, and straw for the roof. 
When conveniences arrive, he saws the trees into joists and boards 
suitable for the style of residence he is able to build. Tree life is 
a wonderful exhibition of special design. Food that is used by 
animals is ejected from the body as excrement; but when the tree 
has got all the nutrition needed out of the blood or sap of its cir- 
culation, instead of throwing it off as excretions, it deposits it as 
wood, and there leaves it for man's use. It is wood that may be 
cut, sawn, carved or made into any shape desired. 

Perhaps the house is to be of stone. This the earth yields * 
and it is hard and strong, yet capable of being cut and shaped at 
will. If the structure is to be of brick, certain clay will serve that 
purpose. Minerals are provided for decorating and preserving the 
wood by painting; the clays are capable of yielding almost any color 



POSITION OF THE PRESENT RACE 



247 



of brick desired; the rocks are white, as in marble, or black, as in 
other marble, or beautiful in granite or sandstones, thus keeping 
beauty always to the front. As the brain of man looks out through 
the eyes, so the inhabitants of the dwelling houses look out through 
windows made transparent by the peculiar quality of glass-making 
sand. Woods are also of every kind and shade, soft and hard, with 
streakings of exquisite colorings that defy the skill of man to re- 
produce. 

Warmth is a part of shelter, and heal is a part of the 
preparation of food. Long epochs ago, when the coming of man 
was merely a dream in the mind of the Creator, it was evident that 
the fuel required for his shelter and for cooking his food would 
not, in its durable form, be so readily developed as man himself;, 
and, in those remote ages, the coal beds were laid in the earth, over 
which was placed other strata, and the whole subjected to great 
pressure during millions of years. It was really the sun's rays 
caught in the vitality of growing vegetation, and locked up in the 
secret chambers of the earth. To-day, when the blazing coals give 
forth their congenial warmth, we see the same sunlight in lesser 
strength pouring out the purposes of God in the comforts of our 
homes. Fire itself is a blessing, and is especially designed by the 
same loving hand. 

The production of food from the soil is equally awonder 
of thoughtfulness. If man is to dwell upon the earth, he must live- 
and be active; and food is necessary for these ends. The same care 
and planning that resulted in man himself, gave him the foods and 
the means of nourishment that must support him. Multiplicity 
was established in order that, from a little, he might acquire much. 
A single seed had power to increase to an enormous percentage. 
The grain of wheat, the bit of corn, the rice seed, and each and all 
of the varieties of vegetation were made to yield abundantly of 
their kind, so that no loss might occur. So great was the care- 
taken of the precious material that it was given a better chance to 
succeed in the ground than the w r eeds that threatened its life. This 
provision is manifested in the manner in which growth proceeds. 
When the ground is tilled and prepared, if the seed of food is put 
in the ground at once, so that the seed of weed and food are given 
an equal start at the same time, the latter will always come up 
through the soil first, leaving it to man's care to eliminate the weeds 
as they appear. If this rule was reversed, it would be almost im- 



248 



IMMORTALITY 



possible to save the tender shoots of the valuable plants. The same 
is true of flowers that are designed for the happiness of humanity. 
The weeds themselves serve to urge man on to the necessity of con- 
tinual culture of the ground, which is needed by the plant. If 
there were no enemies to fight in the garden, it is very likely that 
valuable life would die for lack of attention. The roots breathe 
air and must get it from above through the pores of loose soil. 

When the earth was made ready for man' s coming, it 
was swung partly around so that the sun would not shine con- 
tinually upon one part of its surface. Had the equator not faced 
the sun; that is, had either pole been turned to the great source of 
light, a strange lack of variation would have ensued. It is one of 
the laws of physical health that it must have change and inter- 
change. The same food three times a day for weeks and months 
would cause a collapse of the digestive organs, and a souring of 
the fluids that aid in the action of the stomach. The mind must 
have change and variety. Its very nature consists in an ever mov- 
ing panorama of life. It is merely a reflex impression of the in- 
cidents that arouse it to think and feel. Let nothing attract its 
attention, and it would become paralyzed. 

Had either pole of the earth been turned toward the sun 
— and this would as likely as not occur if accident had directed its 
drift — there would have been an intensely and unendurably hot 
center that would have been burned to a crisp. The pole would 
have been a sun-oven. Men might have braved its heat in order to 
discover what existed there; but it is doubtful if life could have 
been sustained in any form under the direct rays of the sun. At 
the equator, as we now have it, the heat is intolerable except to 
the savages whose blood is not civilized by lack of dress; but the 
equator is relieved by night and day, and our spring and autumn. 
There would have been an area around the pole fully five hundred 
miles in diameter, in which all things would be eternally scorched. 
Fringing along the outskirts of this space, a continual summer belt 
would have occupied the next zone for a width of another five 
hundred miles or more. Next to that an eternal spring would lend 
its mild compromises to the comfort of man, without the heralds 
that make its coming and going an ever fascinating pleasure. 

Below the zone of an endless autumn there would have 
been a frozen winter, cold, cheerless and uninviting. The snow 
would have had no light to dance along its diamond spangles; the 



POSITION OF THE PRESENT RACE 



249 



ice would have reflected no gleam of the sun, although the stars 
and perhaps the moon might have supplied, in lesser degree, the 
yellow covering of their rays. Habitation could not have been 
possible very far away from the bare earth. Men would have 
wondered what kind of matter lay beyond their vision. More than 
two-thirds of the globe would have been a wild range of snow and 
ice, so intensely cold that every changing wind must have blown 
■cutting blasts full into the teeth of the polar oven. Such condi- 
tions would have been antagonistic to all life: for the middle zone 
must have felt the conflict of hot breaths from the furnace on the 
one hand, and the ice winds from the abnormal cold on the other. 
In such warfare all that existed, or attempted to exist, would have 
dwelt beneath the fury of storms, tempests and perpetual lightning. 

Had the equator been turned fully to the sun, there 
would have been night and day in steady succession, with intense 
heat in the tropics, intense cold in the polar zones, and a gradation 
■of summer and spring between. Here in the United States the 
conditions of March would have been fixed for all time, with no 
year to mark off the months. It would have been impossible to 
raise food to eat, for neither grains nor fruits would thrive. Farther 
to the south the heat of a continual summer would debilitate man. 
Jt is a well-known fact that no race of humanity has ever made prog- 
ress in civilization excepting in the temperate zones. Xeither the 
frigid nor the tropical zones have produced a single great man or 
woman. Yet in the belts free from the tropical heat, if all seasons 
were abolished, there could be no plant culture to provide food for 
the body. Had the course of the earth around the sun been such 
that the presentation of its surface to the sun was changed only in 
its orbital flight, a hot spot would have traversed the earth each 
year; but an area of intense heat plunging into an intensely cold 
wilderness of ice would have been less favorable to life than Alaska 
is to-day. Civilization would be far out of the question. It would 
have been a struggle for existence against odds of an overwhelming 
nature. So if there were no revolutions of the earth to give us 
night and clay; or if the revolutions did not throw the equator to 
the sun, there would be all the disadvantages we have mentioned. 

But the earth is gloriously poised in space, with its 
equator facing squarely to the sun twice a year, and having an equal 
swing on either side which establishes the extremes of summer and 
winter, and blends these blessed variations by the mild passages of 



250 



IMMORTALITY 



spring and autumn. It is an admirable adjustment, as fine as ever 
a watchmaker placed in a time-piece, and deeper in conception 
than the inventions of loftiest genius. AYe can almost believe that 
God's hand lifted the globe and turned it about to the exact posi- 
tion necessary to effect these desirable results. It is no more the 
outcome of accident than is the fine balance of the mighty wheel 
of an engine. The revolutions of the earth could not have so 
perfectly accorded with the movement of the seasons as to have left 
an exact average in the full rounded year, unless the inclination 
had been fixed by design. There are a thousand chances of its 
being otherwise if accident had directed the adjustment. 

The present system of seasons is the only one that can 
possibly economize the area of the whole earth for the purposes of 
life. If the sun were to ascend farther north than it now does each 
summer, the withdrawal of its warmth from the other side of the 
equator would result in the destruction of all life in the only favor- 
able zone there: and the same thing is true of our own clime in 
winter; for the south pole would claim as much of the sun as would 
the north pole in summer. The seasons would be sharp, rapid and 
violent in change. Under the present adjustment the temperate 
zones are blessed with extremes not too great, yet strong enough to 
make life vigorous; while the poles are favored with sunshine, each 
half of the year, without taxing the tropics. It is the only arrange- 
ment that would permit the entire globe to come into some share 
of attention from the great source of light; and it is the only 
economy that would enable the greater part of the available sur- 
face of the earth to be used for habitation. Xo astronomer can 
devise an improvement in these conditions. Invention might have 
striven in vain to have produced a method half as good. Yet we 
human conceits are unwilling to sit down in meditative thought 
long enough to settle in our minds the fact that a thinking, living, 
omniscient Creator must have devised this wonderful adjustment 
of our planet in the clock-work of the sky, in order to suit His 
purposes in the development of the human race. As far as we are 
concerned, this one evidence of special design is all-convincing; 
for we have searched into the possibilities of every other explana- 
tion, and find nothing that can satisfy even the cravings of a de- 
termined doubt. God's own mind and His direct, specific, intended 
act threw the earth into the position that must ever remain the 
marvel of supreme wisdom. 



POSITION OF THE PRESENT RACE 



251 



There are many minor matters that might easily endanger 
the life of man were it not for the special care of some loving 
father. There are gases enough involved in any one of the dozens 
of chemical elements and hundreds of compounds to suffocate all 
existence in sixty seconds. If the Creator ever wishes to end the 
race at once, all that is necessary is to liberate any gas, and send it 
out upon the globe. Yet we find the two that support life, oxygen 
and nitrogen, occupying the space that surrounds the planet; and 
held together in just that proportion that is needed. When an 
inimical gas, such as smoke, or other poisons, is set free, the atmos- 
phere diffuses it, and thus protects the life of man. The same 
atmosphere, rising to a height of more than one hundred miles from 
every part of the globe, is a strong resisting sea which absorbs all 
the millions of meteors that are constantly flying to the earth under 
the law of attraction. Each meteor is set on fire by the friction of 
rapid contact with the air; the flames turn the solid substance to 
gas, and the latter, mingling by diffusion with the atmosphere, 
reach the earth quietly, and there mingle with the solids by chem- 
ical affinities. This is certainly remarkable. Were such protec- 
tion not made, it is sure that thousands of deaths would occur every 
week. As it is, very few meteors ever reach the earth in the form 
of missiles. 

The turning of clouds to snow in extremely cold weather 
is one of the most effectual means of aiding in establishing man's 
comfort. When the cloud is in a warm current of air, and its 
vapor is condensed into drops of water, these fall as rain upon the 
ground; but if they pass out of a warm current into a zone of air 
of freezing temperature, the raindrops are changed into hail. If, 
however, the cloud itself is frozen as vapor before it sheds its con- 
tents, snow is the result. That is, hail is frozen rain, and snow is 
frozen vapor. Were the snow to come to the earth in drifts or in 
any quantity, it would be unmanageable, and would choke life. It 
comes, therefore, as vapor, light, feathery and easily disposed of 
when here. It serves many excellent purposes for man's use. In 
cold climes it affords the best surface for transportation; it acts as- 
a mantle for the ground to protect the vegetation beneath, and it 
gives the best natural warmth by shutting out the bleak winds of 
a severe winter with walls of impenetrable thickness. Houses are 
easily kept warm when every crack and joint is filled with the 
omnipresent snow. 



'252 



IMMORTALITY 



The trade-winds are remarkable aids to those who travel 
upon the sea; and captains who know how to make use of them 
are favored with speedy voyages. It is not clear, however, that 
they are specially designed. The gulf-stream that offsets the bar- 
baric austerity of the polar chills, that washes the American coast 
for hundreds of miles, that crosses the Atlantic and lifts its waters 
•of warming impulse upon the cradle-land of liberty and enlighten- 
ment, may not come within the rule of special design. If it is the 
result of merely natural laws, it is hard to explain by any scientific 
wisdom. It contravenes all the expectations of those who profess 
to understand the subtle laws of ocean currents. "Without the benef- 
icent aid of this sea-river, England would be Iceland. 

It is unnecessary to pursue this review of illustrative acts 
of special design. The world is full of such testimony. A glance 
here and there is sufficient to produce conviction. In the realm of 
sin the same law holds true. The most intense passion of humanity 
is the sexual impulse. For its gratification a thousand murders are 
committed annually in civilized countries; and a million cases of 
rape occur throughout the world. Girls and women, otherwise of 
average purity, are led away from home and the nobler duties of 
life to a profession of shame. Men, capable of withstanding almost 
any other temptation, are puppets in the presence of this. The in- 
tensity of the passion where health is good, and its flabby weakness 
in a sickly constitution, show clearly that it is implanted in both 
sexes for the purpose of reproduction and the maintenance of the 
race. But look, now, when the sexual passion is diverted from this 
use, and is employed solely to gratify the animal inclinations. 
There are two filthy diseases that are established as checks for such 
sin; one is the green flow, than which nothing can be nastier; the 
other is syphilis, the most loathsome of all maladies. There is no 
perfect cure for either; and the latter, when not fatal, is the most 
persistent enemy of life and happiness; rotting the bones, sloughing 
out the flesh, and implanting cancers in the blood to hand down 
as an inheritance to several generations. This punishment is never 
visited upon those who use the sexual passion for reproductive 
purposes. When husband and wife are faithful to their marriage 
honor, purity and cleanliness are sure to attend them. The fact 
that a diversion of the impulse out of its intended use is accom- 
panied by these malign maladies, is possibly a clear evidence of spe- 
cial design. 



POSITION OF THE PRESENT RAGE 



253 



The law of adhesion is another of these evidences. By its 
peculiar force, molecules of matter are brought into close com- 
pact, apparently for man's sole benefit. Take away this law; or, 
let it exist only in the shape of ordinary attraction, and all the 
earth would be water, sand or mud. It is adhesion that runs sand 
into glass, that makes iron strong, gold ductile, wire tensile, leather 
tough, wood fibrous, rubber elastic, steel hard, and everything dis- 
tinguishable from everything else. Were it not for this law, the 
bones of the body would crumble, the skin would crack, the mus- 
cles dissolve, and the nerves undo themselves. Because adhesion 
holds the particles of matter tightly together, the great Brooklyn 
bridge is hung to wires that sustain its enormous weight by their 
tenacity. There are a million or more uses of the law, all bearing 
some tribute to the comfort of man and the advance of civilization. 

Putrefaction and its odors are designed to carry on rapid 
changes after death, and to warn man of the dangers that threaten 
his life. The bacteria that haunt the corpse are friendly to living- 
man when they work upon the dead, but are enemies when they 
attack him. Thus the decaying flesh is filled with microscopic 
germs working hard to destroy its integrity, and send it back into 
the great fund from which it came, in order that it may enter into 
other lives; but let the surgeon scratch his own living flesh with a 
knife on which any of these germs happen to be at the time, and 
they will immediately proceed to build immense colonies throughout 
his body, the end of which is death in a few days. Many a man has 
lost his life in this way. It may be that the species of bacteria that 
destroy the dead flesh are not the same as those that afterward 
find lodging there and prove the most cruel of foes to the living- 
body. In any event, it is a wise provision of nature that dissolves 
by the aid of germs the dead carcases of animal existence. 

The fact that human endurance is very flexible, is evi- 
dence of special design. We become inured to almost anything. 
Those who perish by the shock of sudden change are rare excep- 
tions. The frail girl who cannot stand five minutes without faint- 
ing from exhaustion is quickly able to accept a position in a sales 
store where she must stand nine hours a day for six days in the 
week. The poor wife who loses her parents, husband and family 
of thriving children in some accident or epidemic, is soon in har- 
mony with the change, although the ordeal is terrible. The dainty 
mistress of the mansion suffers from a back-ache if she stoops to- 



254 



IMMORTALITY 



pick up her lace handkerchief; but a year hence, when poverty re- 
verses her fate, she can clo a clay's big washing and enjoy the ex- 
hilaration of the sport. The same principle must have held true 
in the period of civilized slavery which existed among the Greeks 
and .Romans. Imagine yourself, your parents, your brothers and 
sisters, all highly civilized, captured by the noble Roman army, and 
brought to the city of cities to be sold as slaves. The thought in 
advance must bring excruciating pain; but a year later you would 
be reconciled to the situation, and your merry jokes with other 
slaves would ring out upon the balmy air of some beautiful Roman 
evening when all the world seemed to smile upon you; and so the 
matter would end. It is a kind provision of the Creator that suffer- 
ing has a limit in a numb realization of its cutting edges, and that 
our lives are molded into shapes that fit the conditions that sur- 
round them. 

Every step in the development of the earth's progress has 
been a permanent monument to the truth of the principle that this 
planet is the product of special creation, designed for a fixed goal. 
In little things and in large matters the same law is ever at work. 
We have seen it in many ordinary instances, and in some mighty 
operations. The most sublime evidence is the readiness with which 
new life has appeared whenever the conditions have changed. The 
past history of the earth is very clearly written in the lithographs 
of geology; and these very distinctly tell us that there has been a 
series of decided changes, all for the better, and that each change 
has been attended by a new kind of life suited to the new condi- 
tions, and springing into place the instant the circumstances fav- 
ored the advance. It would seem certain from this fact, that there 
is somewhere in the solar system an impulse, to put it mildly, that 
stands ready to take advantage of a new and better condition of 
things by supplying a superior kind of life. 

Improvement and advance have been the order of pro- 
cedure in the last one hundred million years. If this well estab- 
lished fact is to be cut short here, with this race now on earth, 
then man, as we behold him, is the goal of the earth, and creation 
is a failure. This we cannot believe. It is senseless to assert that 
the steady progress of the past is to be overturned now, merely be- 
cause the vanity and conceit of man wishes it so. It is senseless to 
assert that the goal of creation is not to be reached on earth but in 
Heaven; for this doctrine preaches failure. It is senseless to assert 



POSITION OF THE PRESENT RACE 



255 



that the splendid momentum of advance that has come to us in full 
strength up to the very door of the present, is to be suddenly 
checked, and that all the lessons of the heroic past are to be lost 
in dismal disgrace, simply because of the wishy-washy theory that 
the next step is somewhere else and not here. 

The finger of fact points sternly to the immediate future as 
the key to the solution of the mighty question at stake. It need 
not be true that the change will occur in the next hundred years; 
for time, as counted by measure, is of no consequence in this line 
of progress. It is sufficient that we know the final step has not yet 
taken place, and that it will occur right here, in this corner of the 
heavens, and not on some other planet, or in an imaginary vacuum 
in the great orb-laden vault of the sky. We believe in the power 
of the Creator to complete what He has begun; we believe that He 
set a standard as high as the outlay of energy and the stupendous 
expenditure of complicated mental force could justify; we believe 
that man, half -angel and half -slum, is not that standard; and we 
are sure, absolutely and irrevocably, that the ] adder on which man 
stands to-day has one more rung, on the plane of whose level, 
above the heights of all conditions now visible on earth, a far 
different race will appear to pronounce the verdict that God has 
power, and that earth has perfection. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 



THE FUTURE DWELLING PLACE. 



[ 634 ] 




ARTH is the scene of the final step. 

This is the 634th Ralston Principle. It sets forth a fact 
, of the very greatest importance. We have no desire to 



consider the subject except by the aid of science. It is 
unnecessary to include in this discussion any religious claim, no 
matter what may be its nature. Our motto is: an established fact 
first, and everything else afterward. The writings of God are in- 
spired when they are produced by His representatives, but above 
all inspired dictation is the act of God. 

The most stupid of mortals is not he who knows nothing; 
but he who, pretending to know more than he does, sets up the 
writings of a conglomerate authorship and declares them to out- 
weigh the direct language of God Himself as spoken in His acts. 
Because the Bible asserts that the earth is flat, and that the sun 
and stars revolve around it, there are educated men to-day, and 
some of them are clergymen, who insist that to declare the earth 
round will cast the soul into eternal damnation, because such dec- 
laration disputes the Bible, which is the word of God. You cannot 
call this wilful stupidity, for these persons are honest and energet- 
ically so. With flushed faces, and eyes suffused with tears, they 
hope in all sincerity to save mankind from the horrors of perdi- 
tion. In our opinion, if there is any sin in being supernally stupid, 
it consists in placing the word against the deed. The very Bible 
that proclaims the supposed language of God, also gives Him the 
credit of making and doing all that has been made and done, so 
that the source of one is the source of the other. If God did not 
make this earth and the universe, then the Bible is wrong. If 
God did make the earth and universe, then these orbs are His 
direct language; and, wherever there is any discrepancy between 
the act and the word, every mind, even of an ordinary cast, knows 
that the deed is the first and best evidence. However in the case 
of the Bible, there are two things that must be ever remembered: 
first, that it is a collection of writings and sayings from thousands 

(256) 



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of bits, covering hundreds of years in their production, and hun- 
dreds more in being gathered together, with interminable disputes 
as to what should and what should not be included; second, that 
neither God, nor His prophets, nor any of His inspired writers, 
have ever declared the collection to be His. This is of the utmost 
importance. It was once made a tenet of religion to believe that 
even the punctuation marks used by printers in later centuries were 
inspired; and this exaction continued until it appeared that these 
inspired periods, colons, semi-colons, commas and others varied 
with the ignorance and carelessness of the printers, no two editions 
being alike. The same variation was discovered in multitudes of 
cases when the copies were made by hand, as was always the case- 
in the early centuries. 

As these copies extend backward it is noticeable that 
they contain less than their successors. An examination shows that 
marginal notes and comments made by the rich owners of preced- 
ing editions have all been copied into the text by the men who 
transcribed them. This alteration certainly has so filled the Scrip- 
tures with additional matter that they may be said to contain fully- 
three times as much as their original authors intended. In certain, 
books it is clear that hundreds upon hundreds of sayings have beem 
collected into the form of chapters, to pass current as the work of 
one person. Much more is surmised than is actually known; but if 
you will talk with any university graduate of Europe or America, or 1 
with any minister who has been recently educated at any theological 
school of standing, you will ascertain all these things and many 
more that will make you heartsore. Do not say, you will not accept 
anything that conflicts with the Bible; do not say, it has stood for 
centuries, and is therefore immaculate; but try to find out if the 
present collection of sacred writings is not very young. Luther, 
when he protested against the selling of forgiveness by the Catholics 
for all sorts of prices, and thus purified Christianity by establishing 
Protestantism, did the world a service that cannot be understood 
until we know that our modern civilization, liberty and human 
progress are all the fruits of his noble work; yet there are chapters 
and books in the accredited Bible of to-day that Luther declared to 
be spurious. The collection as a whole is more recent than any one 
supposes. Not only Luther, but other holy men whose sincerity 
cannot be doubted, spent years of effort in determining what por- 
tions of this sublime work should be accepted, and what rejected. 



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IMMORTALITY 



The wise man is he who has faith enough in the stability 
of the Bible, to be willing to accept its real truths freed from its 
absurd contradictions of fact. In a recent discussion between two 
honest clergymen, one asked: "Brother, if the Bible declared the 
earth to be flat, and you knew it to be round, would you discard the 
whole Bible for that one error?" — The answer was: "I would be- 
lieve the earth to be flat. 77 — "Then, sir, the earth is flat." — A third 
clergyman came upon the scene, and said: "I am convinced that 
the Bible was never designed by our Heavenly Father for the pur- 
pose of teaching the sciences; it is a spiritual work, intended to save 
human lives, uplift humanity, and prepare the soul to meet its 
•God. It should teach love and righteousness. In my opinion all 
discussion of its genuineness in part is useless and unworthy a 
minister of the Gospel. Let us get to work and put its moral teach- 
ings into practice for the good of the world, and let us regard its 
geography as standpoints of human observation." — "But," said the 
second, "the Bible can make no mistake." — "Then the revised ver- 
sion, which is the authority and has the sanction of all Christian 
Protestant churches, is a fraud; for it differs materially from the 
previous version." — You see the difficulties that beset the path 
of bigotry; yet bigotry may be thoroughly honest, sincere, forgiv- 
ing, loving and stupid. 

[ '635-" ] 

Facts outweigh all other means of evidence. 

This is the 635th Ealston Principle, and represents an axiom 
that ought to prove itself on its face, but does not with some per- 
sons. It is true that there may be some doubt as to the certainty 
of supposed facts; but there are other facts that are not clothed 
with possibilities of this kind. As to the shape of the earth we are 
not in doubt. That it revolves about the sun is not a supposed 
fact; it is a bald certainty. That the sun is the center of a system 
of its own, with orbs circling around its great self, is assured. That 
this solar system is set apart in a distinct portion of the sky, 
free from the material influence of other systems, is true. In none 
of these assertions is there the least possibility of doubt. 

But when we say that the planets revolve about the sun 
by virtue of the laws of centrifugal and centripetal force, we are 
in the midst of doubt. Such a statement cannot be proved except 
by analogy, which, in this case, lacks perfection of application. 



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Nor can we say it is certain that the stars are suns, having planetary 
systems of their own; although such seems to be the case. It is 
equally doubtful if other planets, in this or other systems, are in- 
habited or barren. They may be filled with life; they may be dead 
worlds; they may be young worlds in a geological sense. Pretty 
theories and dress-parade hypotheses are delightful dreams to the 
mind of science; but no man has a right to stiffen a belief into a fact 
for lesser intelligence to absorb as solemn truth. 

Under the principle stated at the opening of this chapter, 
we make the claim that this earth is to be the scene of the final 
step. Preparing the way for the discussion of the assertion, we 
diverted to Bible matters simply because some people pin their 
faith on things that are absurd on their face, yet never know it. 
Taking the Bible as it emanated from the hands of God, we find 
nothing in it that conflicts with science or with the established facts 
of the universe. But our position is distinctly this: where any 
writings are out of harmony with actual facts, we propose to adhere 
to the latter. We will not threaten with torture and the horrors 
of the Inquisition any Galileo who happens to discover new evi- 
dence of the truth. The Church has honestly but shamefully made 
mistakes enough of this kind already. Instead of spending her 
time in promulgating the doctrines of peace, she employed the 
centuries in breaking the limbs and blasting the lives of those who 
refused to believe that the earth was flat. To the discredit of her 
creeds it must be confessed that she was two hundred years behind 
science in her willingness to accept the facts as they were proved to 
be. This is not right. 

All persons are agreed that there is another step to be 
taken by the human race. No one, unless he believes in annihila- 
tion at death, refuses to join in this general and practicably uni- 
versal principle. The savage tribes believe in a crude pleasure- 
realm for the hereafter; some in a happy hunting ground; some in 
-a harem of beautiful women; some in crystal palaces; some in an 
opium smoking scene, and others in just what suits their ideas of 
joy. All this business arises from the invention of mothers who 
promise their children anything that pleases them in order to 
secure their obedience. Infantile impressions are the most lasting 
things of this world; and from a dream of childish hope to the sub- 
stantial fabric of a proud, religion there is no intervening gulf ex- 
cept in the }^ears of ripening fancy. The civilized beliefs all follow 



260 



IMMORTALITY 



in the same order, picturing themselves in the desire of the better 
minds that build them. 

If we were to stop here we might well say that science and 
reasonable religions all agree. If the declaration were merely that 
another step is to be taken by the earth's population, the acclaim 
would be, Yes; but that step is not to be taken on earth. If we 
ask, Why not on earth ? the only answer is, Because our religion says 
it is to be taken in Heaven. — But does your religion say that Heaven 
is somewhere else? — Xot exactly; but that is necessarily inferred. — 
Why? — Because earth is not good enough for Heaven. You may 
inquire of any and every person who professes to be able to give you 
solace on this subject, and you will not learn where Heaven is. 
Some say above the earth. But, when night comes, that which is 
above the earth by day is beneath the earth in the abodes of dark- 
ness. Is Heaven above the earth during all the twelve hours of 
daylight, or during a portion only of that time? If during a por- 
tion, at what hour of the twelve is Heaven at zenith? If during 
all the twelve hours, then Heaven occupies one-half of the uni- 
verse in every conceivable direction. If this future abode is over- 
head to the civilized inhabitants of Australia, the good English 
speaking inhabitants, we will say, then it must be over our heads 
at night, in which case Heaven occupies all the outer courts of 
space. 

The Creator of matter must dwell in matter. 

This is the 636th Ralston Principle, and represents a vital law 
as well as an important fact. We have thus far presented three 
principles in this chapter; but their discussion has been reserved to 
a later part of the chapter, in order that they may be examined to- 
gether. If Heaven is overhead to every inhabitant of the earth 
day and night, then it surrounds this globe. The next question is 
this — Is Heaven close to the earth, or far away? If close to the 
earth, it must be spiritual. If far away, it may be either spiritual 
or material; but, if material, it is too far off to be seen within the 
range of thousands of millions of miles multiplied many times by 
thousands of millions of miles. Such a Heaven would be im- 
practicable, and would stand as a globular wall to space as com- 
pletely as the shell of an egg is the limit of its contents. 

Under such a claim we would find ourselves living in the 



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interior of an immense globe, the crust of which is Heaven. As 
this cannot be true by any theory or fact in the known operations 
of the universe, it may be discarded with the certainty that it is 
false. Thus we are forced to the conclusion that Heaven is not 
above the whole earth, unless it is spiritual. If the latter is true, 
it is possible to assert that Heaven is in space, invisible to us, but 
omnipresent and all-viewing. It may be in one part of space, or 
in all the solar system, or in some remote portion of the sky, always 
unseen by mortals. Here we narrow the statement down to two 
possibilities: first, if there is a material Heaven, it is not general 
but local; second, if there is a spiritual Heaven, it may be general 
or local. Under the second possibility we have a Heaven of fan- 
tasms and psychical energies; of angels, like fish, swimming in the 
great sea of the universe. Let us get close to the facts, for the 
issue is important. 

We know absolutely nothing of the soul except through 
matter. There are vitalities of growth, thought, electricity and 
chemistry, all associated, and all related to matter. A thorough 
investigation would trace all these energies to a common relation- 
ship. The plainest of these vitalities is that which relates to 
chemistry; yet we find therein nothing but adhesion and repulsion, 
resulting in affinities and explosions. This we call chemistry. 
All examination shows that the vitality, expressing itself in certain 
so-called fixed elements, and endless compounds, is but a larger use 
of a simple, single original atom, endowed with the three laws of 
attraction, repulsion and revolution. If yon will look into matter, 
from the smallest to the largest, even to the orbs of the solar system, 
you will find these three laws everywhere at work. They are never 
absent; not one of them is ever dead; there is no expression of life 
where they, one and all, are not present. The so-called chemical 
elements are unstable, even in their quietude, and every one of 
them could be charged to a certain method of union adopted by 
atoms. Chemistry, therefore, is but a complicated expression of 
the three laws of attraction, repulsion and motion. There is no 
element, no compound, no affinity, no separation where any other 
law is necessary. It is then true that the great fund of chemical 
vitality is no fund at all, but merely channels of operation of simple 
laws. More than this, it manifests itself in no way except through 
matter. 

Electricity is the greatest problem of the age, for the 



262 



IMMORTALITY 



reason that we know 30 much of its uses, and so little of its own 
self. It is everywhere, in earth, water, rock, metal, air, vegetation 
and life. As oxygen serves as a carrier of food to the growing- 
parts of the body, so electricity has some association with the vital 
spark. It is mechanical, but the vital spark is used for mechanical 
purposes in moving the arms and muscles, by which matter is lifted 
and carried about. In the light of recent inventions it is seen that 
the highest developments of electricity tend to bring that force 
closer by analogy to the functions of animal life as seen in the 
human body, as well as in the lower species. We know that there 
is a fund of vitality; and the chief doubt with relation to it is the 
part played by electricity in urging on its impulses. It almost 
seems as if the two were one and the same. The important fact, 
however, is the certainty that electricity expresses itself through 
matter. As far as we know it exists in no other way; but this is 
mere inference, possibly without support. That it comes from the 
sun is undoubtedly true. 

The first fund is that of matter; the second is that of 
vitality; and the third is that of mind. By this we mean that there 
is an intelligence in the use of both the other funds. Yet if elec- 
tricity is connected with the vital spark, it has less mental endow- 
ment than the latter. As we see it in mechanical uses, it seems to 
obey the chemical or atomic laws of attraction and repulsion; for 
we have affirmative or approaching electricity, and negative or 
repellant electricity. From the atom, where these operations origi- 
nate, to the solar system, where they are openly proclaimed to all 
the universe, we see these simple laws at work. We know that the 
orbs revolve, that they are held in the system by attraction, and that 
they are kept from crashing together by repulsion. In the growth 
of plant life, or of animal life, we know that some particles are 
attracted to the use of the organism, others are expelled, and that 
motion is necessary to the very existence of every part of every 
individual; and we know that death is the expulsion or separation 
of old associations, the affinities of new, and the ever evolving mo- 
tion of change. Thus three laws explain everything: attraction, 
repulsion and motion. 

Mind is intelligence directing the operation of vitality in 
its manipulation of matter. Electricity used in mechanical ways 
is allied to the three laws of the universe, but used in impelling 
growth is allied to mind. It may, therefore, be merely the fund of 



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vitality separated from the fund of intelligence; whereas the vital 
spark is always associated with mind, whether we see its effects in 
tree, plant, beast or man. To repeat in other words, electricity is 
a mechanical division of vitality; growth is an intellectual division. 
The spark of life is in each and every molecule of the body, singly 
and collectively ; and yet it carries some part of mind in its smallest 
compass. It is not possible to conceive of intellect, or any exhibi- 
tion of mental force, except through the operation of matter; and 
we doubt if there is any mind that is not associated with matter. 

The three funds, therefore, are inseparable. Matter is every- 
where visible; this is the first fund. Vitality is everywhere visible 
in its effects; this is the second fund; it lives in matter. Intel- 
ligence is constantly at work, through vitality, upon matter; this 
is the third fund; it dwells in vitality, which lives in matter; it 
consequently dwells in matter. Matter is separable from intelli- 
gence, but the reverse is not true. The mind is, therefore, less than 
the material fund; and this seems to be the universal fact. The 
three funds — matter, vitality and intelligence — are associated with 
the life of this planet, and have been from time immemorial. Even 
when the first rock systems were forming, and a cold and cheerless 
ocean bore its empty waters around the globe, then almost devoid 
of dawning life, the faint efforts of a corresponding vitality and 
intelligence were felt in the bubbling forth of small impulses; and 
the lowest step in the ascending scale was taken. 

It is a solemn fact that we to-day are near the last step of 
that long ascent. Think of it! Think of the great distance, in 
these one hundred million years that the star-eyed goddess of prog- 
ress has traveled, laying her last burden almost at our very feet. 
Think, also, of that dreary time when matter was nearly, if not 
quite, alone; of the leap onward when vitality sent matter into its 
myriad uses; of the joining of intelligence with this union, and 
organisms appeared out of which man eventuated; and yet we are 
nearing the end of it all; we, who happen to be on earth at this 
time, in this late epoch, are privileged to contemplate the long past 
and the brief future. 

It is assumed by many that the Creator of the universe is 
a spirit; that we are spirits dwelling in bodies of matter for con- 
venient purposes; that, when the bodies perish, these spirits will 
be freed, and go to other realms; and that there, in newer climes, 
the same spirits will be given the same bodies again. This belief 



264 



IMMORTALITY 



is shared in by ninety-nine out of every one hundred of the strong 
minds that maintain any opinion at all on the subject of eternity; 
yet it simply brings humanity out of matter into matter. There 
is a fixed belief that you cannot shake, which says that a material 
body is the Heavenly endowment of each person who goes to that 
better land. All religions teach and insist upon it. Christianity 
is full of it, for Christ in the body was caught up into Heaven. The 
Hebrew religion is founded upon the claim, and some of the Old 
Testament characters proceeded direct to Heaven. 

This being a universal belief, it is plain that the use of 
the spirit is merely to serve as a means of transition from one ma- 
terial body to another material body. The same body may be given 
us in the sense that its shape and character may be restored; but 
the identical particle of matter could not be given back, even by a 
miracle. To argue such a claim is a waste of valuable effort; for 
it is well known that we do not hold at any time the identical mat- 
ter that we had the day before. Life means change. In the pres- 
ent case, the only fact of importance is the resumption of a material 
body. If we were called upon to prove that, we would depend, 
first, upon the facts of nature, and second, upon the claims of re- 
ligion. In the latter case we would have no difficulty whatever, 
for every religion, as has been stated, sets forth its doctrine of a 
material body in Heaven. Many persons, even professors of theol- 
ogy, refuse to accept such claims as proofs; and naturally turn to an 
investigation of the facts in order to obtain satisfaction. 

Accepting the statement of a future life in a material body 
as proved by religion, for whatever value such proof may bring to 
our minds, we look with hungry gaze out into the great realm of 
nature for evidence that does not require faith to color it with 
plausibility. It is a fact that faith falters, even under stimulation. 
There are thousands of clergymen to-day who cling to any sub- 
stance, however frail, in the sea of doubt; and, if the shepherds of 
the flocks falter in their course, what must be said of the flocks that 
depend on their spiritual guidance for the true way to life eternal? 
We know; for we have held the confidence and heart-outpourings 
of these very men; that religion staggers under the loads of effete 
matter that it is compelled to carry; we know that the ministers of 
the Gospel preach more faith than they possess; and we are asked in 
a continual stream of correspondence to assist in laying bare some 
fact that will support their would-be beliefs. Our reply is that 



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theology has too long ignored the works of God, and has split too 
many hairs over the words of God. The minister who recently 
declared in public that he was sick and tired of the revelations of 
science, as they tended to shake his faith in the revelations of the 
Bible, was an infidel and an atheist; although he would indignantly 
repel such a charge. 

When the earth and its manifestations of creative skill, 
.are spurned by any person as conflicting with the Scriptures, that 
person is an atheist and an infidel; for such spurning means that 
God is denied in His works. You cannot ignore facts, and praise 
the Creator at the same time; for there is no fact in creation that 
He did not establish. You cannot ignore the earth and its clearly 
•expressed history without ignoring the Maker of the earth and its 
teeming volume of facts. It is not a sin to acquire knowledge; it 
is a sin to spurn knowledge. As we come to examine this pending 
question, we shall see unfolded in plain view a certain array of 
proof that is incapable of being disputed, in which faith plays no 
part, but which sustains the strongest or the weakest faith by the 
supporting column of mighty realism. 

We may approach the climax of the discussion in very 
brief steps. In the first place, matter is ether contracted. The 
-earth is the accumulation of such contraction. This is true whether 
we accept the theory of the nebular hypothesis, or the more ac- 
curate theory of sun-substance, which is continually going forth 
into space, and contracting into material of visible forms. In either 
case, there has been condensation; and if there is anything rarer 
than the fine vaporous ether of which matter is composed, it must 
be something purely spiritual, and not subject to any of the laws 
that govern matter. This we do not propose to deny; but there are 
some difficulties to be surmounted, whichever view is taken. A 
pure, clean-cut, independent spirit, ignoring all substance, and dis- 
carding all relationship to physical laws, may be supposed to be 
possible in part, but grossly improbable in whole. It is easy to con- 
ceive a spirit not made of substance; but one that is disassociated 
from substance is denied by every fact in the universe. 

If, as we are urged to believe, the spirit is the only im- 
portant part of man, it could easily have been constructed by itself 
without the aid of the material world. Much trouble would have 
been avoided. God would not have had occasion to repent that 
man was ever created. No one will have the hardihood to assert 



266 



IMMORTALITY 



that all the past agony of earthly existence has been necessary in 
order to create a mere spirit entirely independent of matter in its- 
destiny. The fact that the spirit is associated with substance in its- 
inception is a certain guarantee that the two are intended for com- 
panionship evermore. This is not a theory; it is not speculation; 
it is fact, clear and decisively set forth in nature. The one hun- 
dred million years of the past history of the earth are not to be 
placed on one side of the scale; and a few summers of flitting, mis- 
erable, fleshly life ending in the butterfly flight of an immortal soul 
to another realm, on the other side of the scale. The two parts do 
not balance. Such an arrangement, such a planning, such a mate- 
rializing of the great purpose of the magnificent universe that spans 
the empyrean, is too grave a charge to bring against the wisdom 
of the Creator. 

The sky is full of matter. It shines, glows, burns, throbs 

and pulsates in the beating rhythm of suns and orbs, richly set in 
millions of galaxies from length to length, from width to width, 
from depth to depth, from height to height, in the limitless realms 
of space, over, around, above and beneath this little ball on which 
we roll in our quiet corner of the universe. Does God intend to 
ignore such imperial glory, and hie Himself to some thin and 
vapory kingdom, where life is but a spirit? We can conceive the 
Creator as a soul devoid of flesh, or even of substance; but, even if 
this be true, we cannot conceive a dwelling place that is a soul and 
devoid of substance. The distinction is a broad one, and should be 
clearly understood. If we, in the physical body, are soul-life dwell- 
ing in matter, is it not equally true that God is as much? But let 
us assume that He is soul-life unclothed with matter; we yet cannot 
conceive a home, a Heaven lacking substance. 

The plan of creation is full of evidences of perfection on 
the part of the Creator; and that which to us appears to be imperfec- 
tion, is merely incompletion. The winds whistle through the un- 
finished castle, and the rains deluge its interior, because it is not 
3 T et done; but when the last stone has been laid, and the last blow 
of workmanship has fallen upon the structure, the decree goes 
forth that the edifice is perfect because it is complete. TTe must 
not mistake progress in the earth's life as evidence of defect, or in- 
dication of failure. On the other hand, we see clearly the power of 
a perfect Being, working out plans of consummate magnificence. 
Economy is apparent amid prodigal profuseness. Xot an atom is- 



THE FUTURE DWELLING PLACE 



26? 



lost. Xot an ounce of life, of force, of energy, of vitality, runs to 
waste. Therefore, with a sky full of ponderous material, working 
out these laws of splendid economy, it is not true that so much 
substance is to be eventually abandoned for an invisible abode. 

The Creator loves matter and loves to work with it. He 
is continually displaying His glories and powers through the opera- 
tions of material growth and structure. From the lilies of the 
field to the gorgeous apparel of Solomon; from the paintings of 
Eaphael to the divine colorings of a twilight sky; from the castle 
on the highland to that city of inspired dreams, the new Jerusalem, 
with its precious stones and streets of gold, the splendors of matter 
are living witnesses of God's handiwork. When your eyes sparkle 
before the scintillations of the diamond, the heart-glow of the ruby, 
or the rich fires of gold; when you see the long array of jewels that 
earth yields out of her treasures; when the foliage of tree and 
shrubbery, the loveliness of flowers, and the sweet harmony of land- 
scape and cloud-decked sky, crowd their beauties upon your very 
soul; you have promises of the works of eternity that God must 
always delight in. It is just as monstrous to believe that all these 
exquisite gems of marvelous handiwork are to be forever locked up 
in a dead planet, as to think that man is destined to nothingness. 
In both cases, in the life of the human race, and in the glories of 
matter, Ave have promises of the destiny of both. 

It is a clearly proved fact that Heaven, or the abode of 
God, is material; whether that place be fixed in some separate part 
of the sky, or is distributed throughout the countless millions of 
orbs that float in the swimming sea of space. The Creator of mat- 
ter must dwell in matter. Thus we come to the conclusion that 
finds harmony in human as well as in divine life. We, who are 
first brought into being by association with matter; who are ulti- 
mately destined to live again in matter, are part and portion of the 
same substance that God Himself dwells in. The more important 
question is that which follows. If the soul is to live again in a 
body of substance; or, if merely in a land of substance, where is that 
material abode which is designed for its future dwelling place? 

In attempting to answer this question there are two facts 
that help us to a right conclusion. One is the progressive ascent 
of the condition of the earth; the other is the ever upward tendency 
of the highest life on this planet. The globe itself has undergone 
continual changes of improvement. It was once a bald rock; then: 



268 



IMMORTALITY 



a marsh of dank and stunted weeds; then a sopping ocean, sweeping 
mud before it over the cheerless surface; then a sulphurous and 
gas-enveloped ball, murky in its gloom; then a wet forest, with wide 
lake-like rivers saturating its ages of decayed and dying vegeta- 
tion; then a brighter world, with solemn woods through which the 
wild birds screamed, and scanty flowers climbed on simple tendrils : 
then a still pleasant er world, fitted for noble animals, and garnished 
with better vegetation, more flowers, and promises of fruit; and 
now a far advanced planet, with more attractions in the blessings of 
growth and adornment, in fruits, flowers, gems, beauties of form 
and rugged grandeur than are needed in a land of eternal lilies, to 
insure perpetual happiness; yet this scale of ascent has not reached 
its summit, for there is no hint in any one of the many voices of 
nature that this is the end. The condition of the earth is steadily 
improving, both by the aid of nature and the hand of man. It is 
surprising to note how largely the latter agency is at work; and it 
may be truly said that, in the last fifty years, more than one-half 
of the entire habitable globe has been changed by human interven- 
tion. Forests have given way to farms; deserts are growing to 
forests; and barren tracts of land will eventually be brought into 
the nature of garden spots. But nature, obeying the purpose of 
creation, will hurry on the next act in the drama of time. Herein 
we see evidences of the fact that this earth is to be the scene of the 
final step. 

But, while the condition of the earth was undergoing 

continual improvement, another fact of still greater importance 
was being enacted. Life was leaping forward in great steps toward 
a higher goal. There is no denying these double facts; and no 
person has or does deny them. They are irrefutable. "While the 
earth was becoming a better dwelling place for life, this life was, 
at the same time, becoming a better inhabitant for the abode. 
These decided jumps in progress, always upward and onward, are 
not meaningless. We need only glance at the primitive rhizopod, 
the fish, the double-life, the reptile, the vertebrate, the mammals, 
the brute-savage, the barbarian, and the man, to note the evident 
purpose of all this planetary creation. Xor is there any indication 
that the human race is the end of the progress. There is no stand- 
ing still. Nothing says to us that the end is achieved, and that 
man, imperfect in the sense of being incomplete, is the goal of all 
this great undertaking. There is no fact in sky or earth, no voice 



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in nature or religion, that proclaims the closing down of the great 
machinery of change, the dropping of the curtain, the termination 
of the route, the arrival of God's offspring at the destined limit of 
the long journey. On the other hand there are many facts that 
state otherwise in language that has no uncertainty in its ring. 

We thus see that two factors are playing infinitely im- 
portant parts in the place where the final step is to be taken; first, 
is the earth itself by its great steps of improvement, and the cer- 
tainty of a further advance; second, is the life on the earth that 
always has and always will improve. A third, made up of the com- 
bination of these two, might be added. It is unreasonable to sup- 
pose that the advancing progress of the earth will cease; it is more 
unreasonable to suppose that the advancing progress of life on earth 
will cease; it is most unreasonable to suppose that both will cease;, 
and, if one continues, it will invite the other, for this has been the 
law and the fact for many millions of years. The final step will 
most assuredly occur on this earth. 

Another part of this question claims brief attention. We 
have shown that God dwells in and amid matter, and that man 
dwells likewise in the same environments. We have admitted 
that God may be merely a spirit, although He must dwell in the 
substance of the universe, or some portion of it; and it is equally 
true that man may, as a spirit, dwell amid matter. It is of no 
consequence to this part of the discussion, whether either is in 
body or spiritual form; so that the necessity of a material home be 
realized. An abode made of matter must be a visible orb, or an in- 
visible mass or structure somewhere in the sky. God's home must 
be in the matter He creates; but there may yet be a Heaven that 
is located beyond the gaze of the largest telescope; although this 
would not preclude omnipresence. It is safe, then, to assert that 
this earth is destined to play an important part, both as the dwelling 
place of God, and a Heaven for the next race of people that shall 
occupy it. This proposition fills out the four-sided monument of 
facts that lead inevitably to but one conclusion. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



PHYSICAL IMMORTALITY. 




AN may master the physical body. 

This is the 637th Ralston Principle. It expresses a 
law in which there is involved one of the deepest prob- 



lems of earthly existence. There are three influences at 
work in the desire to prolong physical life: the first is the fancy; 
the second is happiness; the third is science. 

Fancy has played too great a part in the past efforts of 
the human race to secure a longer hold on this life. Its only ad- 
vantage is its power of buoyancy, by which it trains the imagination 
.and thus schools the nervous centers. The effect of a lively fancy, 
if directed within the reasonable bounds of living, is of the highest 
importance; for instance, let the foods, the amount of exercise, the 
use of fresh air, pure water, and ordinary protection of the body be 
attended by a highly stimulated imagination, and death would be 
compelled to postpone his visit a long time. The great difficulty 
to contend with is the sudden dampening of ardor, followed by a 
collapse of the imagination, and its resurrection in the opposite 
direction. There is no doubt that seventy-five per cent, of all 
maladies are due to the loss of vitality brought on by a reverse 
imagination. 

When fancy deserts facts there is an almost certain dis- 
aster ahead. Barring a supply of reserve force, which is soon ex- 
hausted, it is just as impossible to sustain life on imagination, as it 
is to run an engine without fuel. Exhilaration, enthusiasm and ex- 
citement will not produce a single revolution of the machinery. 
By the use of a power that is a blessing, accompanied by an abuse 
of the functions of the body, many a life has been sacrificed, and 
death charged to an unavoidable course of nature. Faith and fast- 
ing have filled the land with misery and sickness. If one cares to 
investigate this subject, the facts evolved will well repay the task. 
Count five hundred people whom you may meet, and note the im- 
print of disease on the faces of most of them. They are paying 

(270) 



PHYSICAL IMMORTALITY 



271 



the debt of fancy and superstition incurred by their ancestors. 
It is a fact, and probably an oft repeated one, that faith has led 
many a helping hand to the homes of gaunt hunger, and forgotten 
to supply the material needs of the flesh. A starving family, 
suffering from want of food, cannot be brought through the crisis 
if nothing more than prayers can be offered. 

The searchers after the fountain of youth have illustrated 
this work of fancy in the ages past. We are told that every cen- 
tury has witnessed such a hope, from the earliest dawn of civiliza- 
tion; but the dominance of common sense tends to lessen the zeal 
■of honest pretense. It was really believed that there was some- 
where in the world a fountain of youth. At one time and another 
it had been supposed to have been discovered; and gold coins have 
dropped into the hands of venders of vials containing some of the 
precious water. In ages not far distant from our era, in fact not 
many generations ago, the very cream of intelligent civilization 
paid such money and drank such water. Various emblems, tokens, 
charms, and talismans have been set up as endowed with power to 
confer the secret gift; but all in vain. The world wags on, and all 
roads in the field of success verge toward the only magnet that is 
entitled to win — the charm of common sense. 

The second influence at work in the desire to prolong 
human life is happiness. This teaches us to divert disease, lessen 
sickness, and invite peace in body and mind, by noting the effects 
of one way of living as compared with other results. Once in a 
while we meet a man or woman whose life has been worthless to 
"the 'world, who expresses a hope to die before the decrepitude of 
old age comes on; but, opposed to this morbid thought, is the desire 
to attain a happy maturity, and hold the faculties in good condi- 
tion to the last. There are families, where happiness does not 
exist, who permit their parents and grandparents to live in miser- 
able weakness; and it is safe to say that the head of such a family, 
or its controlling spirit, beats his horse and tortures his animals. 
Abnormal minds do not desire to live. The morbid are wedded to 
death and the pageantry of funerals. But, in all households where 
true happiness rings the changes of the years, the parents grow old 
beautifully and gracefully, defying decrepitude, and colluding with 
the charms of wintry sunshine. 

The third influence at work in the desire to prolong human 
life is science. It dawned a few years ago, and is now a healthy 



272 



1MM0RTAL1T Y 



infant. It is beginning to acquaint the people with facts. The 
doctors were quite familiar with the science of drugs, and much real 
learning has been expended in this direction; but the science of 
nature is just telling them that the activity that gives a drug its 
potency in relieving distress, is sure to destroy some part of the 
physical economy of the body. This is seen in hundreds of illustra- 
tions; and the most common is that phase of science which relieves 
a headache by putting the nerve to sleep, or partly paralyzing the 
heart. It is true that drugs will ease the pain of a throbbing head; 
it is true that the doctor knows just how much to use, and the 
best method of applying the dose; it is true that the patient is grate- 
ful for the immediate peace that follows; and herein the science of 
medicine is great; but for every headache so relieved, there is a 
heartache coming along that will lop off the life of the patient in 
some future crisis. Now steps in the science of nature and pro- 
claims that blooded headaches are due to the ponderous mistakes of 
eating; that nerve headaches are neuralgic cries and screams pro- 
testing against the habits of living, especially under the speed of 
modern dash and exhaustion; and that the more often such cries 
and screams are throttled by the blows that deaden their impulses, 
the more likely they are to return again, until finally unheeded 
they can speak no more, and the sapped system falls prey to the 
first onslaught of real disease. If your child is wounded in the 
highway, and is crying out for help, will you go to her and, by 
choking, suppress the cries? Is she cured of her wounds because 
she can utter no further appeals for help? 

The nerves never cry out with neuralgia, the system never 
shouts with rheumatism, unless there is danger in your ways of 
living. It is not for the pain of the two maladies mentioned that 
distress follows; it is not for the sound of the child's voice that the 
agony exists; for these are turn-abouts of the real troubles. "Doc- 
tor, my head, my neck, my body, is full of neuralgia; will you stop 
the pain?" is the equivalent of saying, "Doctor, my daughter is cry- 
ing aloud because of dangerous wounds; will you stop her cries?" 
Yet in one case the science of medicine suppresses the signal of the 
true malady; while in the other case the judgment of a plain human 
being knows that the cause of the crying is in the wounds that are 
tangible. Nature has come into the latter case; she should come 
into the former. The point we are seeking to establish is this: 
when pain and not its cause is checked, the system is mortgaged for 



PH YS1CAL IMMORTAL! T Y 



273 



years to come. Drugs that relieve the one, urge on the other to 
foreclosure. It is not nature. Weeds are not food. Herbs and 
minerals, except in lines clearly designed for use, should never 
enter the stomach. 

The value of true science is seen in the illustration referred 
to, if you are willing to pursue it further. Xeuralgia is a protest, 
a cry. It seeks to tell us that something is wrong in the daily 
habits of life. It pleads with us to check the trouble. If we use 
science, we will take advantage of the warning, and proceed to dis- 
cover and deal with the cause. When this is done, the pain disap- 
pears, the system is strengthened by its going, no attack has been 
made upon other functions, and knowledge has triumphed. The 
experiment is worth making; and there are opportunities enough 
to prove its value. Nearly all humanity in the highest civilization 
is suffering from indigestion, dyspepsia, or other form of stomach 
trouble. Those who take drugs for it, go on in the misery, passing 
continually from one relief to the greater demand for another. The 
cure is in its prevention; but here modern methods of cooking are 
against the hope of success. Polished, society has a polished way 
of preparing the things to be eaten; and suffering mankind must 
take what is placed on the table or go hungry. We have a friend, 
a strong man, who has recently been married to a delightful wo- 
man; and his health is gradually succumbing to the meals set be- 
fore him. Bather than destroy the peace of that happy house- 
hold by a gentle protest, he is quietly destroying his stomach. By 
and by he will be doctored and drugged; the agonies of burning 
dyspepsia will be relieved by a temporary paralysis of his vitality; 
and the bride will be a widow, lovely in her weeds. Such is civ- 
ilization. 

f 638"^ ] 
Disease is unnatural. 

This is the 638th Ealston Principle. It expresses the inten- 
tion of nature to care for the physical body which she has con- 
structed. Yet we are led to pause at the tremendous meaning of 
the principle, if its truth becomes established. As all deaths, not 
violent, are charged to natural causes; and, as all persons die from 
one or the other, it seems as though the prevention of fatal diseases 
would prolong life until such time as accident or violence stepped 
in to end it. This is not necessarily true: although it is a fact that 



274 



IMMORTALITY 



every form of sickness or disease is a violation of the intention of 
nature. 

A stone structure wears gradually away, despite all 
efforts to build it for an endless duration of time. A mound of 
loose earth surmounted by a grassy covering, lives forever. In Asia 
there are such mounds more- than four thousand years old. They 
have renewed their covering every year; while the strongest edifices 
of stone or iron waste and crumble. Activity is a renewal of grow- 
ing life; and in this Ave see the first law of longevity. Too large 
a proportion of diseases may be justly charged to the breach of this 
requirement. Life means action. Nature sleeps, but never rests. 
That physical body is most in danger that is most inactive. The 
functions are best preserved by their continual and untiring use. 
The first intention of nature, therefore, is activity; although not 
running wild. The mind of change is regime. It furnishes the 
reason as well as the method of action; and its guidance destroys the 
erratic uses of this needed element of longevity. Of all methods 
of attaining the best health of which this life is capable, the truest 
is that which places regime as the keystone, crowning activity 
above the topmost portion of the column. 

Disease creeps quietly into every inactive body ; and death 
is but a complete stillness, followed by bacterial devouring. It is 
now well known that bacteria commence their work in the flesh 
long before death comes. This is due to that approach to a dead 
condition that is seen in many lives. Weight does not indicate 
health; for heavy men and women are as often and as much in- 
volved in disease as those who are thin. The first test is always 
this: Is your life active, are your faculties used in their fullness, and 
are you under any strain from overwork in any one direction? No 
person ever broke down from having too many different things to 
do. The fatal strain is alwa} r s one-sided; from using a part under a 
severe tax of energy. No more need be said in this brief review on 
the subject of activity. There are other elements of longevity. 

The work of living is like the motion of a complicated 
machine, with engine, boiler and furnace attached. A proper 
amount of fuel must be supplied; it must be neither too much nor 
too little; and it must be the right kind. We do not attempt to 
feed a furnace with rocks or mud. It is part of the work of a 
good engineer to know what fuel is best, and in what condition it is 
most suitable. Despite whatever claims may be made to the con- 



PHYSICAL IMMORTALLY Y 



275 



trary, if any are so made, it is nevertheless a fact that the people of 
the past, of the whole past, and ninety-nine per cent, of those liv- 
ing to-day, do not know the nature of the fnel they put into their 
furnaces, when that fuel is food, and those furnaces are stomachs. 
In other words, the grossest ignorance prevails regarding the most 
important matter connected with the support of life. Xo wonder 
the furnace burns out; no wonder the engine hitches in its work: 
no wonder the machinery is unreliable in its duties and operations. 
The illnesses of the human body are just as preventible, and just as 
curable as the defects of a badly working machine. In every in- 
stance, without exception of any kind, disease is due to ignorance, 
or carelessness. 

The fact that mankind is not to blame for this lack of 
knowledge proves the assertion we have repeatedly made elsewhere, 
that a perfect race has not yet been reached. The things that are 
not known, and cannot be known, are many and overwhelming in 
their importance. When knowledge comes, a transition will fol- 
low that will change the face of the whole globe. That we are on 
the verge of such change, is indicated in numerous ways; not the 
least of which is the fact that, for the first time since civilization 
began, we are acquiring information as to what foods best sustain 
life. The use of this knowledge is bound to revolutionize the con- 
dition of the human system. It is not true that men and women 
will refuse to avail themselves of such information, for they are 
doing what they can with the degree of faith they already possess 
in the accuracy of the information. They have so much to think 
of, so much to read, so many new and crowding ideas to digest, that 
the wonder is they are willing to accept anything that teaches a 
departure from established methods of living. 

The truth will eventually find a hearing. Then the most 
important theme in physical life will receive attention. All that 
is eaten will be fed to the stomach with the same care that fuel is 
fed to the furnace; regard will be paid to quality, to quantity, to 
bulk, to concentration, to ease of digestion, to time, to order of eat- 
ing, to combinations of food, and to its preparation and protection 
from attack by germs. All this will come about in time: though 
very slowly. The people will learn that raw milk is not always 
safe, for it absorbs poisons, odors and bacteria; that cream that has 
stood in any room exposed, is no purer than the air of that room: 
that butter made from cream that has absorbed the poisons of the 



276 



IMMORTALITY 



atmosphere, is a raw material laden with dangerous impurities; that 
cheese, ripened to a delectable flavor by fermentation, is loaded 
with microscopic life; that eggs laid by hens that have fed on 
worms, insects and vermin, are simply carriers of such offences in 
a cancerous condition; that fruits with unopened cells are foes of 
the intestines; that grains not suited to the exact needs of the body, 
tax its vitality; that meat is no better than the animal from which 
it is cut; that flesh fibres produce a sharp irritation of the nerves 
of the stomach; that flakes of fried grease, or baked pastry will 
partly paralyze those nerves; that flour is injurious in the form of 
white bread or starch-dough of any kind; that certain vegetables 
are poisonous while nutritious; that tea produces bladder troubles; 
that coffee causes rheumatism and one form of neuralgia; that 
beer ruins the kidneys; that alcohol kills the vitality of the liver; 
and that the promiscuous order of eating is just as worthy of a 
civilized mind, as would be the feeding of a furnace when it re- 
quired no fuel, or delaying the supply when the fire was low, or 
throwing sand, mud, bricks, water, shavings, coal, wood, varnish, 
wall-paper, carpets, crockery-ware and old junk into its maw, at 
every whim and caprice that might arise. It would need cleaning 
out quite frequently. No wonder a profession was created for 
the purpose of cleaning out the interiors of men, women and 
children; and that the members of that profession were called 
physicians because they did this cleaning out by physic. Not many 
years ago they called themselves physickers, but changed the spell- 
ing to physician for euphony. 

m 

Eating must eventually become a scientific process. 

This is the 639th Ealston Principle. It represents a law as 
well as a prediction of its use in the far away distance of the future. 
We do not pretend that so radical a change will occur in this gen- 
eration; but it ought to find recognition before the next century is 
closed. The rule of our time is indifference to health; and this is 
due to the fact that we are imperfect beings; that the race is in a 
state of incompletion; and that the mind is not able to comprehend 
the value of care in eating until disaster compels it. This is daily 
history. 

There is no reason why we should take our food with less 

care than we exercise in feeding our horses and cattle. The stuff 



PHYSICAL IMMORTALITY 



277 



that we admit to our overworked and constantly amazed stomachs 
would disgust any member of the brute species. Cooking is such 
a high art that three days of fine hotel diet drives us to an intense 
yearning for plain foods, simply prepared. The digestive organs 
have the strength of iron in childhood, unless they are abused; but 
this vigor is laid low by the most barbarous treatment. They will 
endure almost everything, and recover from it; so that, when we see 
an individual suffering from dyspepsia, we are sure that the abuse 
has been long, violent and wanton. 

Some of the universities have been considering the ques- 
tion of protecting every kind of food that is suitable for the human 
stomach, by reducing all clangers of contamination, and eliminat- 
ing all injurious matter associated with it. The result of this step 
would be great, for it would, in the very start, remove half the ills 
of life out of the world. For instance, milk can be made more 
nutritious and far more palatable by making it perfectly safe 
through a process of preparation. Cream is always of doubtful 
value to the system when it is taken in a raw state; and, churned 
into butter, it is a transmitter of disease in more cases than we 
think. Strange and unwelcome as may be the news, it is neverthe- 
less true that butter made out of grease subjected to a great heat, 
is both safe and nutritious; while pure butter, churned from cream, 
is a carrier of all the diseases possessed by the cow, as well as all 
the odors, vapors, poisons and germs caught from the atmosphere 
in which it has stood. All these annoyances to health may be easily 
avoided, and will some day be avoided, by the science of sense in 
eating and obtaining food. 

Meat has certain properties of value to human life ; but 
we do not yet know how to treat it for the stomach. There is a 
way of getting out of it the nutrition that we try to digest out of 
it; yet our best process of to-day tends continually toward gastritis. 
Before the twentieth century is well under way, the barbarism of 
meat eating as now carried on, will have yielded to a scientific pro- 
cess of preparation which is unknown to the public at large; and, 
ere that century shall have drawn to its close, the inhabitants of a 
more enlightened age will look back upon their animal-eating an- 
cestors with the same horror that we now experience when told 
of the cannibals who relish the missionaries we send to their bar- 
barous lands to comfort rather than nourish them. 

Whole wheat flour is older than man . It is the miniature 



278 



IMMORTALITY 



of his boch r . God made it grow long before the first type of our 
race appeared on this planet; and, when he came, this best of all 
foods was waiting for him. It is the staff of life; yet we get it in 
most indigestible forms, turning into an enemy the noblest friend 
the body knows. The time will come when the coarse parts will be 
properly removed; when the indigestible fine dust will be blended 
with the muscle- and brain-making portions, so that the whole will 
be nutritious and easily assimilated. Chemical digestion is rapidly 
advancing in our era. It will solve most of the problems of grain 
eating. The fat and distressing carbons of yellow corn, the ob- 
stinate nitrogenous nature of beans, the feebleness of rice, the 
skin-erupting buckwheat, the hardihood of barley, and the individ- 
ualities of each of the grains, will be made suitable for the stomach, 
with every disadvantage overcome, and every ill-tending quality 
removed. 

Enough has been said to show what we mean by the 

principle stated. Then, too, there will be a better knowledge of 
time, quantity, order of change, and details of combination. If 
it is some day ascertained that disease cannot easily find entrance 
to a body that is nourished as its chemical nature requires; if it is 
found that the energy that is so largel} r wasted in fighting the ene- 
mies of digestion, may be conserved and used in the higher range of 
the faculties; if it is seen that the germs of malignant maladies can- 
not secure a footing in a body that is filled with natural vitality; 
if the mind and heart, freed from the entanglements of bad blood 
and imperfect flesh, take nobler flights to more ambitious realms 
of achievements: then the better judgment, the more reasonable 
sense of the twentieth century man must direct him to the attain- 
ment of these new conditions. 

Ever since history began there has been a steady improve- 
ment in the race. Its career has been one of progress. This con- 
tinual bettering of life cannot stop here. Such a sudden cessa- 
tion is illogical, for it flies in the face of a long array of facts 
fraught with a significance that cannot be mistaken. YTe all look 
for a large leap in the coming century. Xo one has the least doubt 
upon the matter. This progress cannot be confined to acute inven- 
tions designed to perfect machinery, or to elaborate the comforts of 
life. These will take place, but there will come a time Avhen the eye 
of search will be turned inward, and the needs of this body receive 
attention. Amid the proudest triumphs of human genius, the 



PHYSICAL IMMORTALITY 



279 



crowning glory of invention will place man upon the pedestal of 
safety, far above the gaunt forms of disease, and give him a taste of 
the blessings of earthly existence which, once set free, will come 
to him in flowing abundance. 

Is old age a necessity ? This question is difficult to an- 
swer. If it related merely to the decrepitude of age, we could say 
at once that such miserable weakness is entirely unnecessary. The 
sad spectacle of an old man or old woman being helplessly depend- 
ent upon others, is but the natural finale of wrong methods of liv- 
ing; and we are glad to know that there are persons to-day in the 
eighties and nineties, who have the vigor, beauty and independence 
of others half as old. The times are developing more cases of this 
better kind. As we write, there comes the report of a lady, 125 
years of age. who is in the possession of all her faculties. Others 
are well known, who are past the century mark. We are convinced 
that any person, who is not suffering from an incurable malady, 
may turn about and reclaim lost ground, recover a departed vitality, 
and go on to an extreme old age young in spirits, and vigorous in 
faculties. 

f 640~ ] 

Death is the debt of nature. 

This is the 640th Ralston Principle. It represents a law and a 
fact. The best prospectus of the future is the past. Xo one is 
living to-day who was born in the first half of the last century. 
Every person alive at this moment expects to die, to return to the 
dust of the earth, and there have a physical end. If even one could 
escape the penalty, then this would not be the psychozoic age, the 
epoch of imperfection. It is, however, interesting to inquire how 
far a careful person may go, if no accident intervenes to thwart the 
plan. We will not discuss the possibility of perpetual life in the 
body; for, if one should reach the age of five hundred or a thousand 
years, he would he so out of harmony with the people about him 
that death would be a welcome relief. 

It is certain that every form of disease may be kept out 
of the body. Of this there is no doubt whatever. Death, then, 
can come only by accident, violence, or wearing out. A perfect 
machine cannot run forever; and man is a piece of machinery badly 
attended to. "Wear and tear reduce the parts, and defects arise in 
spite of the best care. In man the substitution of new material is 



280 



IMMORTALITY 



always going on; but, against this change, is the stiffening of the 
system and the agency of its fibres. The bones that were full of 
elasticity in youth, now become brittle and dry. The veins, cords, 
nerves, and brain-tissue even, are clogged and hardened. The 
cause of the mental obstinacy so frequently seen in old people, is 
in this very stiffening of the brain substance, which prevents flex- 
ible thinking. All these things are called old age. 

It has been found quite recently that such processes as 
we have just described, are due to lime in the water and the food 
which we take into the body daily. A variety of interesting ex- 
periments, together with extensive observations, help us to reach 
the only conclusion possible; namely, that the approach of old age 
is chargeable solely to the minerals, chiefly lime, found in our 
drinking water; and, in some degree, to the same things found in 
meats cut from animals that have matured. If we examine very 
young beef, we find but little of this calcareous matter; but, if the 
same animal lives to develop its full size, we may easily come in 
contact with a large amount of mineral matter, which, if taken into 
the system, will rapidly develop old age tendencies in our own 
bodies. The surest way to keep young in such respect, is to avoid 
mature flesh and hard water. 

Suppose, now, with the advantage of this knowledge at 
our command, we should make the attempt to live one or two hun- 
dred years — would we succeed? Death by accident or violence may 
be left out of the discussion. There is a chance of retaining the 
health of all our faculties for more than one hundred years. With 
foes to meet in the shape of doubtful drinking water, improper 
food, scanty exercise, unbalanced work, and distressing conditions, 
death is inevitable unless each one of these enemies may be con- 
quered. The water problem alone is sufficiently difficult to guar- 
antee death to every man, woman and child that is born; and there 
is no remedy for it. The public are satisfied with any drinking 
water that looks clear, and that does not cause typhoid at once; 
yet the race is momentarily aging under the influences of this in- 
difference. One of the secrets of great longevity is to be found in 
preparing drinking water so as to meet the exact requirements of 
the body. Experiments, observation and analysis of exact results, 
warrant the statement as one of absolute fact that, all other things 
being equal, the determination of this simple question will add one 
hundred per cent, to any life; or, in other words, will double the 



PHYSICAL IMMORT ALU Y 



281 



years that would otherwise be lived in any individual case. When 
food is so prepared that eating may become a scientific process, 
another percentage of similar proportions may be added; that is, 
life may be trebled through these two advances into the realms of 
common sense. The person who denies these statements, is grossly 
ignorant of the laws of life and the facts of living; and it is due to 
such ignorance that ill health is master of the modern world. 

That which most saps the vitality of the body is worri- 
ment. It is one of the attendants of imperfection, and is therefore 
clear proof that we are still in the psychozoic age of geology. It 
is not possible to annihilate this quality of the human mind, for the 
conditions of existence compel us to worry. Philosophy alone is 
able to reduce the evil by cultivating stoicism; but to destroy feel- 
ing is to invite carelessness and indifference, and these are already 
too prevalent. Yet if a person could be found who is able to see 
the uselessness of fretting over annoyances, or pining in the pres- 
ence of gigantic apprehensions, such person might well add many 
years to life, if, at the same time, due care was taken of the physical 
body as already suggested. Worry is an al] pervading mental 
disease, located in the cerebrum or thinking brain. It sends an 
acid of a very depressing nature down into the cerebellum, or 
action-brain, which controls and directs all the movements of the 
muscles, and thereupon the body becomes inactive, sluggish, 
drowsy, and all the spirit and ambition of life are smothered. 

Worry also causes the thinking brain to send an acidu- 
lous fluid of a very depressing nature over the delicate organ at the 
base of the head, known as the medulla, and sometimes called the 
third brain. This sensitive nervous mass is the direct master of 
digestion, circulation and respiration. Its myriad influences run 
out through nerves to the heart, lungs and stomach. For the lungs 
to do their work faithfully, the medulla must be in a bright mood; 
but, when a gloomy thought has depressed it, the enthusiasm neces- 
sary to a vigorous life, is all taken away; the lungs do not expand 
to receive the inhalations of breath, nor contract to expel them; 
and the blood, for lack of purification, grows dark and poisonous. 
The stomach responds to the exact mood of the medulla. If good 
news should enter the thinking brain, it would send a bright, mag- 
netic fluid to the medulla, and that organ would telegraph the 
happy influence to the stomach; digestion would be full and ben- 
eficial; and the blood so made would find buoyant lungs to give it 



282 



IMMORT ALU Y 



the best qualities of life. On the other hand, it is well known 
that bad news will stop digestion. A man who had just eaten a 
hearty dinner, and was ending the last course, received information 
by telegraph that caused serious worriment. Ten hours later his 
stomach was still full — and, on taking an emetic, it was found that 
digestion had not even begun. The same law is known to affect all 
persons, under gloomy influences. A bright, cheerful mind will 
digest almost anything edible. The circulation of the heart is like- 
wise controlled by the medulla, which receives its mood from the 
thinking brain. 

This one line of discussion is capable of extending itself 

into various complications that need not be considered in the pres- 
ent chapter. Enough has been developed to show the difficulties 
that stand in the way of prolonging life, even when a person is 
capable of understanding and applying the rules that relate to 
food and drink. There is not the slightest doubt that, some day, 
those two great questions will be settled in such a way as to add 
vastly to the years of earthly existence; although comparatively 
nothing as yet has been done in this direction. But when nutri- 
tion has been placed in the ranks of a perfected science, it will still 
be true that worry and anxiety will hold sway then as now. There 
may be some remedy, but not while social conditions are as ab- 
normal as we find them in this century. 

The chief causes of depression are disappointment, sick- 
ness and poverty. The first is omnipresent. The second may be 
cured, absolutely and. permanently. The third is due to ignorance 
and indifference on the one hand, and dishonesty on the other. 
Poverty, in nine cases out of ten, is the twin-sister of a warped or 
dwarfed brain; it is a mental defect that is curable only by educa- 
tion; but poor people, as a rule, refuse to read anything more than 
the sensational newspapers, or to study anything except tobacco 
signs and beer advertisements. A small minority of the poor are 
deserving of wealth, and there is a certain way whereby it can be 
gained. The dishonesty of the tyrannical classes that holds them 
in slavery, is verging on its last territory. It may almost be declared 
a fact that honest ambition is sure of substantial triumph on earth. 
With abundance springing from the soil of this planet, with 
more to spare than ten times the need of the human family, it is 
a monumental evidence of the brain imperfection of man, that 
hunger is allowed to exist. A little knowledge will reverse the 



PH YSICAL MM OR TAUT Y 



283 



conditions. AVhen it comes, there will be plenty for all who de- 
serve it; and, under this better rule, the mind will have less to 
worry about. 

Death is inevitable in this age of imperfection ; and the 
loss of friends and relatives must always prove depressing. Few 
of us care to live on, while those we love are underneath the ground. 
The hope of meeting them again is so interwoven in every heart 
that our plans are laid more for a world to come than a continu- 
ance in this. This of itself engenders carelessness, amounting 
in many cases to an absolute indifference to the laws of health. 
In spite of these tendencies, it is safe to say that there is at work 
in the scientific mind of to-day a solution of this the greatest of 
physical problems. It will be found that the art of curing is a 
progression backward; for the true course of procedure is that which 
makes the prevention of ill health more important than the en- 
durance of it with the doubtful hope of steming a tide that is too 
freely let on to its work of destruction. 

The sum of the whole matter is very easily reached, for 
there can be but one conclusion. The mental life of even the 
highest civilization is of so imperfect a character that it is in- 
capable of meeting the complications of earthly existence. The 
brains that the world has most admired, have been short-lived. 
Greatness of mental endowment has operated against the owners, 
who, instead of living one or two centuries, have succumbed in 
their fifties, forties and thirties, in a majority of instances. It is 
true that none of these brains has ever been turned to the science 
of longevity. Daniel Webster, the foremost of all Americans in the 
towering majesty of his mind, died from depression following his 
disappointment as a defeated Presidential candidate; yet he had 
brain enough to have solved the easier problems of living, and the 
art of stoicism. 

The best that can be predicted is an extension of life ; 
simply delaying death, and preserving the faculties. Authentic 
records show that men and women have lived three hundred years. 
There are some in this country who are more than one hundred 
years old, and yet able to do their own work. It is probable that, 
in every case, the result is due to an accidental combination of 
favoring conditions, rather than to a studied care in obeying the 
laws of health. Yet in all cases that we have investigated, there 
has been no flagrant abuse of these laws. It is said in favor of the 



284 



IMMORTALITY 



human race that the world is growing better. We are ever re- 
minded that our present rank is above that of the age which pre- 
ceded us, and that was an improvement on the age it followed. 
This has always been the case. From the lesson thus taught, the 
reasoners on these subjects insist that the coming century is to 
witness a leap forward; but their only hope for believing so is 
founded on the steady progress which has been going on from the 
long past up to the present time. If the advancing column of 
human improvement is still marching on, then they are right. If 
it has stopped, then they are wrong. 



CHAPTER XXV. 



A LOOK FOEWAED. 



pari 

PRESENT conditions will improve. 
This is the 641st Ralston Principle. It represents a 
law now at work in the progress of the human race. There 
are two kinds of improvement ; one that is involved in the period ; 
the other that places one period above another in the scale of ad- 
vance. If you will imagine ten periods of progress, each more 
elevated than the other, you will obtain an idea of what is meant 
in the second kind of improvement. The first is the lowest, the 
next is one plane above, the third still higher, and so on to the 
end at the top. Thus the general improvement has been going on 
by successive steps. 

There is another kind of progress known as specific, or 
that which takes place in the domain of each period. By this is 
meant that the era ends better than it commences. This may be 
observed all along the line of the past ; and belongs to the geo- 
logical history of the earth. Thus when there was nothing but 
sheer and bald rock over the entire surface of the globe, the sim- 
plest or most primitive period was being enacted. It seems that 
its lower strata indicate no life at all ; that its middle strata indi- 
cate the beginning of vegetation ; and that its top strata indicate 
the promise of animal life through the appearance of the rhizo- 
pod, or "dawn animal." All this is intensely interesting; not 
only because of the value in itself, but further for the reason that 
it stands as the type of every period that followed. Both kinds 
of progress are seen. The next period took up the advance where 
it was dropped by the first era. This we call the second kind of 
progress. Yet each period made a decided improvement in itself. 
This is the first kind of progress, for it operates first. From mere 
rock to signs of vegetation, and from the latter to signs of animal 
life, is no insignificant movement in the plan of existence ; yet 
these three parts were played in one distinct and separated epoch. 
This of itself would justify us in looking into the long series of 

(285) 



286 



IMMORTALITY 



succeeding periods, to see if the same plan is ever at work ; and, 
if so found, we would then conclude that the present era with all 
its conditions would improve likewise. 

[ —642~ ] 

Improvement within each period is gradual. 

This is the 642d Ralston Principle. It recites a fact, under 
cover of which a fixed law is continually at work. It is clearly 
distinguishable from the 621st Ralston Principle which states that 
the earth's progress has appeared in decisive steps. The latter re- 
lates to the leap from one era to another, while the former relates 
to the progress within the era. This has been gradual. To re- 
peat the two processes in other words, we find : that the progress 
that has taken place in the period has not been sudden ; and that 
the progress from one period to another has not been gradual. By 
sudden is not meant rapid as in point of time ; but sharp, as in 
the changes produced. These distinctions are important and 
should be well understood. 

A review of past epochs confirms tins law. no matter 
where we look for evidence. It is certain, therefore, that the 
same kind of change occurring within our present era is proof 
positive that we are passing through one of a chain of earthly ex- 
periences. There is no escape from the conclusion. We are in 
the last part of the link next to the final leap in the interesting- 
chain. We have repeatedly referred to this link as the psycho- 
zoic period, which is its correct geological name. It must be 
borne in mind that we are in this era, and probably near its close ; 
not necessarily in point of time so much as in point of develop- 
ment. It would be very wild guessing to state about what date 
this period will draw to a close. It may run through the next 
century ; or it may endure another thousand years, or even many 
times that. The only guide to a conclusion is in the probabilities; 
and these we will mention later. 

The present era began about six thousand years ago. 
You say this is Bible testimony. We are not to blame, if the 
facts of secular proof coincide with the supposed chronology of 
the Old Testament. We made no effort to bring about such a 
reconciliation, as many others have done who are determined 
to sustain the Sacred Word at all hazards. Had we never heard 
of such an account as Genesis, or had we never known the claim 



A LOOK FORWARD 



287 



of the Bible as to the age of the chosen race, which is therein 
called ma?i, or Adam, we should nevertheless have found from 
other testimony, more reliable from the standpoint of the rules of 
evidence in use in the practice of modern law, that the present 
race is but six thousand years old, or thereabout. We are putting 
ourselves in the place of a party in a court-trial, upon whom 
devolved the task of proving the probable age of this race. Xo 
judge and no supreme court in America or England, would per- 
mit the introduction of the Bible account, as legal evidence. But 
there are other means at hand to-day of substantiating the claim ; 
and all this may be done while entertaining full respect and rever- 
ence for the sacred volume, although discarding its attempt to 
prove secular history as a function not properly attaching to a 
religious work. 

It is important to know what geological period we are in 
at this time, and when that period began. It is called the era of 
mental life, which is the definition of the term psychozoic. Such 
an epoch could not properly be considered begun until the Causa- 
sian man came upon earth. That he did not appear until about 
six thousand years ago, is easily proved by an abundance of testi- 
mony ; and thus it is true that the epoch through which we are 
passing, and of which we are active members, began at that time; 
or when the white race appeared. For the nineteen hundred years 
of the Christian era, there has been no difficulty in keeping track 
of this race ; and the same is true for twenty centuries or more 
before the time of Christ. In other words, we are almost in con- 
stant touch with the secular history of mankind for the last four 
thousand years. Back of that time the evidence lessens with each 
century ; and, when we pass the mark of six thousand years, we 
are compelled to look to geology for testimony. This being silent, 
confirms the absence of the Caucasians in all prior ages. ' 

The white race is man. 

This is the 643d Ralston Principle. It stands for the most 
important fact in this period. By white race, we mean the Cauca- 
sians. It is clearly seen that, amid all the testimony of every 
character that could be adduced in this line of investigation, there 
is not one fragment, however small, that shows the existence of 
white man on this earth prior to six thousand years ago. It is 



288 



IMMORTALITY 



true that races of barbarians preceded us ; that races of savages 
preceded them : that races of brute-savages preceded them ; that 
races of apes preceded them ; and back of all that are the lower 
vertebrates. These things are well known and well established. 
If we were to include in the term vian. all other races or any 
of them, we should hardly know where to draw the line ; for 
the chattering savage, whose small round eyes glare at you from 
beneath shaggy skins, must be accepted as the bed-fellow of 
Shakespeare, Milton, Tennyson and Phillips Brooks. Sentiment 
embraces everything that walks on two legs, and endows it with 
an immortal soul ; but sentiment has paralyzed the minds of 
men and women for many centuries, and a little common sense 
will be a refreshing relief, if only for the sake of variety. Those 
who prefer to entertain impossible and unscientific claims, rather 
than shift a fossilized sentiment for one that has life, are aiding 
science by offering their own mental incapacities as evidence 6f the 
imperfections of this period. 

There is a way of proving everything when the founda- 
tion is laid in solid facts. If you wish to prove the status of the 
white race, look to its history and achievements ; and compare 
them with the works of all other races. In the first place it is 
possible to tell what people are included among the Caucasians. 
In all the evidence furnished us by geology, there is not a single 
skull of a white man embedded in its strata. If one, even ap- 
proaching it in shape, could be found, it would overturn all the 
theories of this era. But as the impossible never happens, it will 
never be discovered. The Caucasian head is distinctly different in 
shape and size from the Mongolian, the Indian, the Malay and the 
Negro. It is the dome of mind, and the first appearance of a mind- 
skull, in the sense that this organ is the controlling department of 
the body. So distinct and separate is it from all other related 
branches of humanity that we, seeing it apart from others, might 
suggest the work that the owner of such a skull would be expected 
to perform in life. 

Remove in your mind every Caucasian from the earth 
during the last six thousand years, so that not one member of the 
white race would have yet appeared in the world, and you must 
trace the events of history as enacted by one or more of the four 
other races which make up the population of the globe. Imagine, 
if you will, that the Chinese, the Negroes, the Malays and the In- 



A LOOK FORWARD 



289 



dians are joint possessors of the earth, and have been for sixty 
centuries. Where would you find civilization? It would be an 
unknown quantity. God would not exist, as far as this world 
would know. Or, imagine the population to have come under the 
sway of any one race ; say the Mongols, including the Japanese 
and Chinese as the leading spirits of progress. If after these thou- 
sands of years of neighborly influence exerted by the powerful 
Caucasians over them, the Celestials are still engaged in worship- 
ing wooden gods, in a thousand varieties, how much do you think 
they would have accomplished in carrying on the work of civili- 
zation had such influence been withdrawn? What would the 
world be to-day had the Chinese moulded its destiny? The past 
has been specially favorable to the Mongolians, in that they are 
great imitators, and have had the Caucasians to copy from ; but it 
is Godless and barbarian. 

We must look to one of the three remaining great 
divisions of humanity for help in solving this question. The best 
is the African ; not his blood-blended descendant as we see him in 
America, but the dog-faced, villianous, throat-cutting Negroes of 
Africa, where they swarm in nasty and brutal millions. Suppose 
they had been placed in charge of the world's progress for the past 
six thousand years, what would we see to-day? Nothing. They 
are incapable of civilization by themselves, as their native history 
shows most clearly ; and no one pretends that they would ever 
have made the slightest advance, even in sunny America, were it 
not for the aid of the white race. What they do acquire is not 
absorbed, and a few generations of self-association would retrace 
every inch of progress, little as it is, that the best of them in this 
country have attained. 

It is sure that the Chinese and the Negroes would 
prove useless agencies for the advancement of the human race. 
They would destroy God and civilization. The Malays are still 
lower, and the Indians more savage. The latest authentic evidence 
regarding the millions of dollars of expenditure made in order to 
civilize the remnants of the American Indians, shows that the task 
is a hopeless one. A handful of this nearly exterminated race 
remains ; but their chief alliance to civilization is found in their 
fondness for whiskey. It was decreed of God that they should be 
wiped off the face of the earth, and the anethema has nearly 
ripened into full execution. Under the combined sway of Chinese, 



290 



IMMORTALITY 



Negroes, Malays and Indians, the world would have sunk lower 
and lower in degradation ; and the condition could not have been 
bettered by the supremacy of any one of these Godless and non- 
progressive peoples. It is thus seen clearly that the Caucasians 
are the only race that have been or can be useful to the cause of 
humanity, of civilization, or of God. 

About six thousand years ago the earth was ripe for the 
coming of the white race. Everything stood in readiness. Before 
true man, real man appeared, the earth was well populated. Of 
this there is abundant evidence, and it is useless to deny it. 
There were four great races, the Mongolians, the Malays, the In- 
dians and the Negroes. We say this, because it is not possible for 
these widely separated types to have sprung in six thousand years 
from one ancestor, nor for any one race to have diverged from any 
other by the process of evolution. The fact then remains that 
there were four great races on earth before the real man appeared ; 
and he made the fifth. Had the Mongolians and Negroes attempted 
to dwell on the same continent together, one would have exter- 
minated the other. The same is true of any of the races. It 
would have been a pretty war to the finish to have had the Ne- 
groes in this country a thousand years ago. The Indians would 
have quickly mastered and butchered them. As it proved, there 
could not have been a neighborly or adjacent existence of any two 
of the world' s great races ; so we find the Mongolians in Asia, the 
Negroes in Africa, the Indians in America, and the Malays driven 
from the continents to the islands of the oceans. This is a natural 
adjustment of savagery. Europe had more or less of the Negroes, 
judging from the skulls found ; but as the hot climate, once prev- 
alent in Europe, shifted southward, the race went with it ; and 
thus the continent that was to become the scene of the greatest 
progress in civilization, was left free to the oncoming Greeks, 
Romans, Germans and English, that standard-bearing horde of 
Caucasian supremacy. 

We boast of the greatness of advance made by mankind 
in the past few thousand years, but there is not one step, not one 
school-house, not one recognition of God, not a single encouraging 
ray of light that has come to us, except through the Caucasians. 
It is wrong to credit the Mongolians with being a part of this great 
human family ; for they would destroy everything that is good and 
end all this advance in culture and morality, if they could. It is 



A LOOK FORWARD 



291 



wrong to credit any of the other races, the Negroes, the Indians, 
the Malays, or their branches, with belonging to the same humanity 
as the Caucasians, for they are in no way related. The white 
people stand alone as the race of progress, of civilization, of God ; 
and all other peoples are enlisted in the cause of overthrowing all 
three. Let us be fair to the race that deserves the credit, 

f 644 "| 

The anti-racials will be exterminated. 

This is the 644th Ralston Principle. It presents a future fact, 
under a law of creation that is even now in active progress. By 
anti-racials is meant all people not Caucasians ; that is, the Mon- 
golians, Indians, Negroes and Malays are anti-racials. The numer- 
ous small tribes are off-shoots or branches of these. A Caucasian 
is easily distinguished from all others ; and, where miscegenation 
has mixed the racial blood, another law is steadily at work de- 
stroying the fruits of that mixture. It is an astounding evidence 
that the hand of God is seen and felt in the unfolding events of 
to-day. 

The anti-racials are not descended from the Caucasians, 
for they dwelt upon the earth man y thousands of years before the 
first white man was born, or was created. If you will examine 
the skulls that are known to-day to belong to savages, or to semi- 
civilized people, as barbarians are conveniently termed, and com- 
pare such skulls with those known to have been associated with 
conditions of geology that must date back eight, ten,- twenty, thirty 
and one hundred thousand years ago, you will see that there is in- 
disputable evidence of the existence of anti-racials long before a 
single Caucasian appeared ; and the most surprising fact of all is 
that traces of the white race do not begin until within six thousand 
years. Here we have absolute proof that the Caucasian is not the 
progenitor of the anti-racials. It is a physical impossibility. 

The Caucasians are not descended from the anti-racials, 
except in the sense that the bird is descended from the reptile. 
The latter gave its body-plan, its physical functions and its nature 
largely to the bird species ; but a sufficiently wide gulf exists be- 
tween them to establish the fact that a leap in the progress of 
creation occurred at this stage. We do not believe that we have 
Negro blood, nor Indian blood, nor Malayan blood, nor Chinese 
blood in our veins ; nor do you believe this either. It is our 



292 



IMMORTALITY 



opinion that, when the conditions were ripe, the Caucasian was 
brought into the world by a direct act of creation. The same God 
that deviated the axis of this planet so that we might enjoy the 
advantages of the changing seasons, would not only be able but 
would exercise His will to bring man, the real man, the white 
man, into the world. He might do this outright and openly, or 
through a step in evolution within the species, which is not infre- 
quently done in the lower animal classes. He would not send as 
forerunners of a civilized being such a horde of savages as we see 
swarming in the past, and still sweltering in their rich exuberance 
of filth. 

The Caucasians are not related to the anti-racials. It is 
not true that a perfect man came upon earth and fell. If he fell 
at all it was from Paradise, or the Garden of Eden, in some other 
orb ; and he dropped to earth. But the evidence is too straight to 
assume the remotest possibility of a chance for any perfect man on 
this earth to have fallen, and his descendants to have degenerated 
into the worthless trash that abounds in every nook and corner of 
the globe. The fact is overwhelmingly established that man has 
arisen, has come up out of a distinct past to whatever of eminence 
he now occupies. We do not believe that we are related to the 
anti-racials for the reason that we are so far unlike them that 
there is no approach of resemblance, except in those functions that 
are common to all mammals, even in the lowest scale of the brute 
kingdom. If the Negroes and Chinese, the Malays and Indians 
are our brothers, then the monkey and chimpanzee are brothers 
also ; for the same principles apply in both cases. Mere order of 
intelligence cannot be made a test, for there are Caucasians of the 
best ancestry who have less sense than the average monkey. 

Another reason for believing that we are not related to 
the anti-racials is the fact that the latter are doomed to destruction, 
like the snakes in Ireland, the bears in Vermont or the wolves in 
Kansas. They neither make progress nor permit it ; and are there- 
fore undergoing the first steps in extermination. It would hardly 
seem possible that so great a mass of worthless humanity would 
be created for no other purpose than to be annihilated. It being 
unnecessary, it is unjust. Yet they belong properly to the chain 
of steps that mark the advance of all existence from the first dawn 
of life fifty million years ago. They are types that made the last 
epoch a consistent link in this chain ; as we, poor and imperfect 



A LOOK FORWARD 



293 



beings, are proper parts of the present step. They lived and 
thrived before the white race was announced ; they swarmed in 
greater millions than now ; these are left over, and must succumb 
to the frosts of a nipping winter. 

It seems harsh and cruel to say that the anti-racials are 
doomed to annihilation ; but a little reflection will set the matter 
right. All who now live must die. To that there attaches no 
special cruelty ; at least it is the lot of all. If fewer are born each 
generation, the process of extermination will be agreeable to all 
parties. Four hundred 3 r ears ago this continent teemed with 
Indians. They were everywhere, from ocean to ocean ; from the 
arctic snows to the tropics. If, at that time, there had been, in 
Christian Europe, soft hearts that melted with sympathy for these 
millions, who could have pronounced it blasphemy to declare that 
those immense hordes would be practically wiped out of existence 
in a few generations, we could have agreed with them. It would 
not seem that such a thing was possible. Yet there is one race 
less to-day. To be sure, there are a few Indians, but they are 
insignificant in numbers and are growing beautifully less. 

There are fewer Negroes in Africa to-day than one hun- 
dred years ago. It is said to be the fact that one-half of all those 
millions have disappeared with no others to take their places. 
Civilization is gradually taking possession of that continent ; and 
the fate of the natives is as certain as that of the American Indian. 
Then it will be true that the only remaining negroes are those of 
the United States. They are fostered and encouraged by the false 
sentiment of the country ; and in a comparatively short time their 
fast increasing millions, which outnumber any other growth, will 
make them insolent rulers of our nation ; then the people will rise 
up in a bloody and treacherous war, and exterminate them. After 
such a war, the Negroes, now already the most arrogant criminals 
and murderers of this country, will be corralled and fenced in as 
the Indians are to-day. The uplands of Western Texas will be the 
the new African Territory, and there the race will die. A few will 
be kept for curiosities, as Indians are at this time. 

This will leave but two races opposed to the Caucasians : 
the Mongolians and the Malayans. The latter will be the last to 
go ; for ten thousand years they were driven to the islands and 
there they have remained ever since. The Mongolians are chiefly 
Chinese. As England is absorbing India, so Germany, France and 



294 



IMMORTALITY 



Russia will ere long divide China into three great States. The 
armies of civilization will transport new millions into the midst of 
the Celestials ; and there their numbers will fall away as did the 
Indians of this country. What is possible once is always possible. 

[ —645— ] 

The fruit of miscegenation will perish. 

This is the 645th Ralston Principle. It represents a law of most 
exact execution that is ever manifesting itself in the world. Misce- 
genation is the intermarriage of the races. In some of the States it 
is made a felony. We are confronted with the problem that, if the 
anti-racials are not related to the Caucasians, how is it that they 
may breed together ? How is it that the mulatto is born of the 
white and the black ; or the half-breed of the Indian and the 
white? The answer is, as we have once stated, that God probably 
used the non-racials as planting ground for the Caucasians, to hold 
and mature the seed. He might have used the lower animals, but 
did not ; although there are some legends that state as much. 

There are mulattoes, or half white and black ; quadroons, 
or one-fourth black ; octoroons, or one-eighth black ; half-breed 
Indians ; and mixed races all over the world. In India, the 
young girls of that empire are sold for a trifle to the English ; and 
the ever active soldiery are mingling with the female portion to an 
extent that is rapidly changing the population to half-English. 
The result will not be the ascendancy of the latter, but the exter- 
mination of the natives. The reason is seen in a certain decree of 
nature, which places a ban on all such mixtures. It is known 
that the half-breed Indians are more sickly as the generations 
descend, than at first ; and all such fruit of miscegenation dies out 
in time. Even where the Caucasian blood has entirely absorbed 
all trace of the anti-racial, there are very few instances indeed of 
the survival of the line. 

The Chinese or Mongols do not easily blend with other 
races ; and the claim is made that it is impossible to do so, but 
this is not true; it is merely very difficult. In one thousand cases 
of intermarriage of Chinese with Caucasian, in which no attempt 
was made to select barren instances, it was found that not one had 
ever resulted in offspring. In the few cases where children have 
been reported, it is either impossible to find records of them in 
after life, or else they have died out. In our own country, a 



A LOOK FORWARD 



295 



splendid opportunity is found for tracing the lines of descent in 
iniscegenous marriages involving Negroes and Caucasians. Some 
of the most beautiful women of the South are octoroons ; and they 
and their children are the most consumptive and cancerous of the 
population of that section. While there are many mulattoes to be 
seen all over the world, and especially in this country, they may 
nearly always be found to be sickly, with a tendency to ulcers, 
abscesses and cancers in the blood ; and disease in the organic dis- 
pensation. They die out before the lines have reached the fifth 
generation ; or else all trace is expelled by the powerful dominance 
of the white blood. 

The solemn lessons of this law teach us that the hand of 
God is at work shaping the destiny of the earth ; for this planet 
and its people are part of each other and hold a fate in common. 
If one will take the time and expend the effort required for the 
research, it is possible to follow through the lines of descent from 
race-mixing, a steady determination to weed out the fruit. Yet, 
on the other hand, the best offspring are born to those parents who 
represent branches of the white race. The intermarriage of Irish 
and Anglo-Saxons, of Germans and Irish, of Scotch and Germans, 
or in any other way that may be arranged ; is sure to benefit the 
children, even to the end of time. The Caucasion head is easily 
distinguished from that of other races. It is found in all parts of 
the world, but chiefiV in Europe and North America. In some 
types it is deficient, in others grand ; but this is true of any one 
branch, even in one lineal family at times. Yet, with all varia- 
tions, it is so clearly distinguishable from all other human heads, 
that there is never the slightest doubt as to the race to which it 
belongs. It is the dome of mind, towering above all others. 

[ 646 ] 

The Caucasians are the chosen people of God. 

This is the 646th Ralston Principle. You may ask us why 
we leave the inference that there is a God. Our reply is that we 
have proved that an omnipotent Creator has established the earth 
and all the life it bears on its breast. The matter has been specially 
discussed in the preceding pages. We have even shown that, no 
matter what may be the theory of the origin of man, whether by 
outright creation or by evolution, he is the creature of God and not 
of accident. Evolution simply involves more secular time than a 



296 



t MMORTALITY 



direct fiat ; but time of this kind is nothing to the great Architect 
of life. It is a mere breath. The warm air from the lungs con- 
geals upon the icy glass, and we call it a second of time ; man 
comes out of the remote past and God calls it a second of time. 
It must be assumed then that all doubt as to the existence and 
active intervention of the Creator, is removed from this discussion. 
You may conceive of Him as a personal power, or as a single 
being, or anything else you may please to conjure up in the mind. 
That is not pertinent to the present inquiry. Your independence 
of views will not be encroached upon. But you cannot deny the 
realism of the Supreme Being, unless your mind is incapable of 
reading the plainest language and accepting the strongest evidence 
in all the earth's volumes of testimony. 

The principle stated may meet with some objection from 
those who are guided by their sentiments rather than their judg- 
ment. It is pleasanter to declare that all humanity is the off- 
spring of God ; that all human beings are His children. We have 
often been confronted with the assertion that all peoples are de- 
scended from one man, Adam; and by "all peoples," it is in- 
tended to include every biped. If this is true, then Adam lived 
one hundred thousand years ago, for bipeds in the shape of Ne- 
groes, wild men and brute-savages dwelt on earth at that time ; 
or, at least, thousands of years before the time of Adam as we 
understand it. No person who is honest will assert that all the 
present conglomerate humanity has sprung, in six or even ten 
thousand years, from a single parent stock. Ignorance may ex- 
cuse many falsehoods ; but there need be no such colossal mal- 
treatment of the truth as to declare this old error to be living fact 
to-dav. 

Again we are told that God would not create a race 
that was to be destroyed. If this bit of fossil theology is true, 
then He did not create the American Indians, a race that is prac- 
tically extinct at this time, with the complete end in view. We 
do not believe there will be ten Indians on earth one hundred 
years hence ; for other agencies, besides the hand of man, are at 
work in their elimination. What about the people in the time of 
Noah, or those in the days of the destruction that fell on Sodom 
and Gomorrah, if God would not create humanity to be destroyed? 
All these matters must be relegated to another field of inquiry, if 
they are to be solved. In reflecting on the wonderful mysteries 



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297 



that are wrapped up in the process of past development, the sad- 
dest thought of all is this : How could a just and loving God 
leave these creatures to suffer and endure the tortures of the ele- 
ments ; of disease ; of slaughter from wild beasts ; of poison from 
plants, flowers, minerals and foods ; of sting and death from rep- 
tiles and venomous insects ; of murder from malice, avarice, and 
revenge; and the horrors of ten thousand wars? It not only 
appears that races and peoples have been destroyed, but that all 
humanity has been subjected to cruelties from the remotest past 
up to the present da}^ ; so that the sentiment of a loving Provi- 
dence does not yet apply, as we shall soon see. 

There is behind life another principle which we have not 
yet touched upon ; and it furnishes the only solution of this much 
discussed and vexing question. All that need be said is that two 
great forces are tending toward each other ; one coming to us 
down from the sky ; the other coming to meet it from the un- 
locked treasures of earth. In the meeting of these powers will be 
found the focus of immortality ; the white light of absolute life. 
As part of this drama we find a certain chosen people, entrusted 
with the mission of bringing up the earthly force to the plain of 
God. This people is the Caucasian race ; of which we are a mem- 
ber. If the claim is made that all other races, the Mongol, the 
Negro, the Indian, the Malay, are equally entrusted with the 
duties to be performed, the answer may come quick that they are 
not. All history proves that they are not. They have stood in 
the way of progress, and must be swept away ; and no agency of 
man is accomplishing in this direction one-one-hundredth as 
much as the direct action of God. 

That the Caucasians are the chosen people of God may be 
proved, in any of the ways previously stated in this volume ; and 
any one of these furnishes a sufficient proof. For instance, if we 
were to imagine all white people removed from the earth, and its 
government placed in the care of Chinese, Negroes, Malays or In- 
dians, we would quickly see what is meant by the rank and value 
of the Caucasians. The earth would be barren of civilization, and 
certainly without recognition of God. The wooden images of the 
Mongols, the bloody rites of the brown and dark tribes of Malays 
and Negroes, and the savage butchery of the Indians would offer 
one long and lasting night, in and through which not a single 
gleam of day could ever be perceived. A merciless and cruel 



298 



IMMORTALITY 



humanity would sway this globe in all governments and religions. 
Not one redeeming feature could anywhere be found. This is the 
condition of the best anti-racials of to-day ; and it is universally 
conceded that they are incapable of themselves of rising out of it. 
Whether the salutary influence of the white race is able to perma- 
nently elevate them is an open question ; but, no matter what 
view may be taken of this, it is admitted by all who are familiar 
with the problem that the Caucasians are necessary to the uplifting 
of the anti-racials. This being true, our principle is maintained ; 
for the people that shall carry the whole burden of advance must 
be the chosen race of the power that decrees that advance. The 
matter may be summed up as follows : 

1. The races are improving. 

2. A steady improvement has been going on from the earliest 
records of geologj T , through successive steps, called periods. 

3. In each period a separate advance has taken place, so that 
the epoch has closed better than it began. 

4. The improvement is so full of meaning that it must be the 
result of special design. 

5. If special design exists, it is proof of a personal power con- 
trolling the development of the earth and its inhabitants. 

6. It is not improper nor incorrect to call such personal power 

God. 

7. There have been five races on earth : the Caucasians, 
Malays, Mongols, Negroes and Indians. 

8. All these races, except the Caucasians, have been and are 
incapable of progress in religion and civilization, unless they are 
stimulated by the Caucasians ; and, on the other hand, they have 
steadily opposed all advance in religion and civilization by their 
idolatry, cruelty, blood-thirsty natures and degrading instincts. 

9. The improvement or elevation of humanity is the special 
design of God. 

10. The Caucasians alone are capable of carrying on such im- 
provement or elevation. 

11. Therefore the Caucasians are the chosen people of God. 

All efforts should be concentrated upon the pure 
Caucasians. 

This is the 647th Ralston Principle. It represents a duty 



A LOOK FORWARD 



299 



that is the most important in the work of advance, and the most 
neglected. This book could not be written unless it spoke freely 
of one of the most serious blunders of the age ; that which prompts 
the good people of the Church to send millions of dollars annually 
to the lands of the anti-racials, to be spent upon the enemies of re- 
ligion and civilization, at the cost of denying it to the Caucasians. 
If the 646th Ralston Principle is true, then it is the duty of the 
white race to look first to themselves and second to their enemies. 

We do not deny the right of any persons to give as they 
please and to whom they please. Those who prefer to pass their 
own race by, and deluge their wealth upon Chinese and Negroes, 
may do so as freely as they like. There is no way of preventing 
such wrong. Neither do we object to the spirit that prompts a 
good man or ivoman to give to others, whether anti-racials or not. 
This is humane. It is civilization. What we do object to, is the 
cultivation of that spirit of fanaticism which is of the same order 
as fetichism, and just as harmful, which stirs our hearts to make 
sacrifices for and to the yellow, brown, red and black beings of 
earth. They sacrifice their best steers to the gods of wood, stone 
and metal ; and give the poorer meat that remains to their chil- 
dren and friends ; we sacrifice our funds to the barbarians and 
savages, and pass by the more needy members of our own race. 
The principle is wrong. It is so advocated by clergymen as to 
leave the impression that they profit by the proceedings. Let us 
see if this is so. There are in every country where ministers are 
dependent upon a yearly salary for a living more men in the pro- 
fession of the cloth than there are positions. Some must go poor. 
The number of places must be increased. The more the field is 
extended the more " calls" there will be for the preachers. The 
more preachers that are sent out of the country to foreign lands, 
the less pressure will be brought to bear upon the positions that 
are held in this country. Herein is a motive for that wild and 
ever repeated harangue and yearning appeal for money for foreign 
missions. We do not believe that the motive is known even to 
those who most benefit by its operation ; but it is certainly felt. 
It may be merely a piece of intuition. Thus the clergy are honest 
and yet alive to the policy of business. It must be remembered 
that the ministers who stay at home and hold their positions 
secure from the pressure of numbers, profit more by sending away 
and securing support for the missionaries than do .the. latter ; for 



300 



IMMORTALITY 



they suffer the inconveniences of travel and new modes of living. 
It was once the custom to send laymen and women to such posts ; 
but now it is thought necessary to consign ordained preachers to 
those duties. 

There are arguments in favor of foreign missions ; the chief 
of which is the introduction of the advancing columns of civilization 
into the midst of benighted peoples of earth. Yet, if this is to be 
done, it should proceed under the State and not under the Church. 
When everything has been said in favor of spending enormous 
sums of money in the markets of savage nations for the support of 
missions who are attempting to convert the anti-racials to the 
Caucasian religion ; when the best facts have been presented and 
the best words uttered ; it is still true that our own race is entitled 
to first consideration, and does not get it. The way to ascertain 
this fact is to answer the following questions : would the one thou- 
sand million dollars that have been collected through religious 
meetings in the United States alone and sent to be spent among 
the Chinese and Negroes abroad, be of material help in saving and 
elevating the people of our own country, if this vast sum of money 
were hereto-day? If the answer is, yes, then the point is main- 
tained. If the answer is, no, then the person making such reply 
does not tell the truth. One magnetic clergyman at a single camp- 
meeting raised one hundred and twenty thousand dollars for foreign 
missions. We have heard a preacher declare that his voice had 
been instrumental in raising over one million dollars for such cause. 
The money, once out of the country, does not return. It is a sheer 
loss to our people. 

Let us agree that the spirit and the purpose are right in 
sending so much money to aid in converting the anti-racials ; yet 
w r e cannot agree that they should be preferred to our own people. 
There was a good woman once who gave her best food to lazy 
tramps, out of sentiment and sympathy ; and her children went 
starving for the necessaries of life. In this wonderful land with 
its limitless resources, there are men and women, boys and girls, 
hungering for practical religion, for practical education, and for 
practical blessings, such as clothing, bread and shelter. They 
suffer through privation and distress until disease adds its tor- 
tures ; while the money and the effort that flow out to the Chinese 
and Negroes abroad, would alleviate the misery and want at home. 

If we could have our way, — and we cannot, — we would 



A LOOK FORWARD 



301 



call home every foreign missionary and turn the stream of millions 
of money in the direction of our own people for a period of ten 
years ; we would set those missionaries at work caring first for the 
bodies, second for the minds, and third for the souls of the heathens 
that swarm in every part of this broad land ; and,' after these bless- 
ings had been richly bestowed upon the unfortunates of our nation, 
we would then let the intelligent people decide whether the mis- 
sionaries should be sent back to the Chinese and Negroes. The 
chief duty of the Church in this age is to concentrate its efforts 
upon the salvation of the Caucasians ; and this is true no matter how 
the subject may be viewed.. If it is claimed that it is the duty of 
the white race to carry religion and civilization to the Chinese and 
Negroes, then all the more is it the duty of the white race to impart 
such blessings to themselves and all their relatives and all their 
own people, in order that the conquest of the anti-racials may be 
more speedy and effective. As the matter now stands the Cauca- 
sians are divided among themselves. A large majority of the white 
people are not church attendants and give no heed to religion. Of 
the small majority of those who do attend, a very limited percent- 
age are sincere. This division of itself will prevent a consistent 
advance and honest results abroad. Then, again, the church 
members are not agreed upon their Caucasian religion. Some are 
Mohammedans ; some are Hebrews and disclaim all the creeds of 
Christianity, denouncing the innovation as pretentious ; some are 
Catholics, shutting themselves up in a system that excludes all 
others ; some are Protestants ; of these, some are Baptists, others 
Methodists, others Episcopalians, others High Church, others Low 
Church, others Presbyterians, others Christian-Baptists, Freewill 
Baptists, Congregationalists, Lutherans, Disciples, Adventists, 
Universalists, Unitarians, and scores upon scores of others, princi- 
pally splits from these ; most of them ridiculing or arraigning the 
creeds of the others ; and yet they send missionaries to Chinese 
and Negroes to spread a split and splitting religion among those 
benighted and dismal intelligences. 

The Caucasian race needs a college of giants to teach it 
reason ; to cement together every worthy class taken from every 
source ; to bring the good people out of their disputes and differ- 
ences into union, and weld them together in a mass of workers 
that shall prove irresistible in its undertakings ; to compel, by the 
force of superior intelligence, the selected classes to work upon 



302 



IMMORTALITY 



and elevate all the degenerates of their race ; to see that clothing, 
shelter, food, education, comforts and Caucasian plenty shall be 
brought into every Caucasian home ; to allow none to escape ; to 
employ energy of procedure, stringency of methods, and an un- 
compromising severity of action, until all are brought under the 
blessed standard of civilization, prisons are decreased, hospitals 
are unnecessary and suffering a relict of a bygone era. The indif- 
ference of the people, of the leaders of thought, of the churches, 
of the clergy toward the heathen of our own America, is some- 
thing that excites contempt the more it is contemplated. Men 
who have declared themselves called of God to save sinners, con- 
tent themselves with dodging sin as it exists out in the world, and 
train their minds to develop ingenious policies that shall save 
them from conflict with the enemies of morality. A minister of 
the Gospel should be a giant, with a heart full of courage ; he 
should not only lead his people, but should compel them to fol- 
low him ; he should use whip and lash, scourge and bludgeon, 
first upon his lazy and insincere church-members, then upon the 
stalwart enemies of morality ; when the devil, speaking through 
the press, charges him with sensationalism, he should not cower 
beneath his fear and skulk away to the hiding of commonplace 
methods ; but he should make the charge true ; he should be sen- 
sational to the last and ultimate degree ; he should stir brimstone 
in every newspaper office, for the press are the preachers of infi- 
delity and immorality ; he should compel the dejmties of Satan to 
abuse him, and to abuse him roundly ; he should acquire sense 
enough to know that, when he is assailed by newspapers, rum- 
sellers, gamblers, horse-racers, prostitutes and his own indolent 
and insincere followers, he is steering the right course ; and if he 
has not brain enough and strength enough to return the thunder- 
bolts of God full into the faces of His foes, and keep up the fire 
until the field lies strewn with the dead, he should step out of the 
ministry and take a position behind the counter of a dry-goods 
store. The pulpit is the mouth-piece of God. It needs men of 
brains, men of dauntless will, men of fighting powers, men who 
care nothing for abuse so that it comes from the sources named. 

The college of giants should be composed of all fight- 
ing, aggressive, exasperating men and women who know how to 
organize privately as well as work publicly ; who know how to 
gather disciples about themselves that are eager to pick a quarrel 



A LOOK FORWARD 



303 



with the enemies of morality ; who invite and urge on all the 
guns of abuse and calumny that the evil-doers of the world are 
capable of training upon them ; who prefer to be called by nick- 
names and sarcastic appellations, such as crank and reformer, so 
that such attentions come from the sources named ; and who can 
strike sledge-hammer blows or none at all. But the college of 
giants should comprise only those men and women who are highly 
endowed with brain and heart. No weaklings should be admitted. 
The pulpit was ordained of Heaven to be its mouth-piece ; but 
the wishy-washy, flabby, sickly, abuse-dodging ministers who 
occupy the sacred office are as much intruders as are girls charg- 
ing in battle with loaded guns and bristling baj^onets, upon the 
gorillas of the forests. When the people place giants in the min- 
istry, they will rise in new might, carrying with them the nation 
and all its functions. 

You have a voice in this matter, small though it be ; you 
can talk, urge, persuade. If you are not a church-member you 
should be one at once. If you are, you can talk giantism and 
sledge-hammer blows to your pastor ; you can tell him that Christ 
was a good fighter as well as an exponent of love, that He went 
into the temple and made physical war upon the enemies of 
morality, that He cursed as well as forgave ; and you can procure 
the aid of others in this work of instigation. Then, if he is still 
afraid and tells you that open warfare will bring God's religion 
into dispute, tell him that God was capable of making war upon " 
a whole world which He destroyed ; upon Sodom, Gomorrah, 
Jerusalem and other cities that were plunged into the agonies of a 
wrathful devastation ; and, if the skulking preacher still trembles, 
send him into the ranks of laymen and look about for a giant and 
a fighter. By such methods must the race be saved and the 
period brought on to its fulness of time. 

Present conditions will improve, but not of themselves. 
Still they will improve. We are in the best period that the earth 
has yet known. It surpasses all its predecessors. Better than 
that, we are in the best part of this exalted period. Commencing 
six thousand years ago, or approximately at that time, the era had 
its dawn. In the lap of a lower humanity, the first Caucasian 
sprang into being. Under the guidance of Providence, he was 
protected, and the race secured a firm foothold upon the planet. 
Time moved on and the children multiplied until they were ready 



304 



1MMORTALIT Y 



for migration. Then the impulse to go forth and conquer the 
world made itself felt, and the period began to show signs of 
advancement. The perfect representative skull of this race was 
found in the Caucasus, where the continents of Europe and Asia 
are separated by the mighty mountains of that land ; and hence 
the white man received his title. 

Whatever he accomplished in Asia, his destiny was 
westward. He streamed over Europe. Two thousand years ago, 
and more, he sang in the divine verses of Homer, the eloquence 
of Demosthenes and Cicero, and the poetry of Virgil. In the 
renaissance of later centuries, he blossomed on English soil, and 
four hundred years ago he reached America. Thus we see the 
hand of progress in every part of this journey. The world seems 
new ; for it is emerging out of the comparative darkness of the 
recent past. It is going on to an unknown future, an immediate 
destiny at whose portals we are almost permitted to enter. No 
one knows what the next century will reveal ; and to predict is 
idle. We can place dependence upon the facts of the eras that are 
already enacted, for their history is plain in every page ; but the 
sage who declares that certain things are sure to transpire in the 
coming years, is an unsafe counsellor. 

While specific facts cannot be set forth as part of the 
chronicles of the future, the general trend of the next centuries 
can be easity understood. One thing is certain ; the earth will con- 
tinue to revolve. Another thing is equally certain ; life upon it 
will continue to ascend in the scale of advance. A third thing is 
certain ; every condition and circumstance will be enhanced, made 
better, brighter, and grander. Here are facts that are too well 
established to admit of argument or challenge. But they tell us 
nothing definite. Yet, if improvement is going on, there are 
channels of limitation by which we can arrive at fair surmises of 
what may be expected. To the historian the proof of progress is 
in the greatness of the inventions produced in a given age. These 
we place little value upon, in considering the real advance of a 
people. Inventions increase comforts ; comforts tend to luxury ; 
luxury is the forerunner of disease; and disease means death. Action 
is life. 

There are other opportunities for improvement ; and 
inventions may attend as incidentals only. We would not regard 
the universal conversion of mankind and the brooding of a deep 



A LOOK FORWARD 



305 



religious peace, as evidences of planetary progress ; although the 
observance of Sunday, temperance, chastity, purity, honesty and 
cleanliness would change the habits of all the peoples of the 
world, and lead to a more exalted moral plane of living. But 
when the foundations of the universe were laid, when the earth 
was reeled off the sun, when the races were created out of the 
crust of the planet, there was no moral law at work ; and the first 
evidence it ever gave of its presence was less than sixty centuries 
ago. It is, therefore, unlikely that religion in the future will play 
more than the part of a factor in the changes to be wrought. The 
profession of the clergy was established for conditions of wicked- 
ness ; let these be changed and every minister must step out of his 
pulpit and seek new fields of conquest. Even the strictest advo- 
cates of the first religion of the Bible can point to no need of such 
doctrines until sin had written its ugly mark on those pages. The 
function of salvation implies the necessity of being saved, and the 
perfect soul needs no salvation. 

The pith of the problem is very easily ascertained. While 
the process of creation knew no moral code, it permitted none that 
stood for immorality. Nature punishes such wrong, and eternity 
sustains the decree. Mind is imperfect ; it is to-day, at its best, 
but a crude instrument ; and the roughness of its cast invites dis- 
honesty and permits injustice in the co-relations of mankind. 
From these defects arise the misery, sin and suffering of the 
world. The criminal code, when honestly made, is but a relief 
impression of the moral code of Nature or the religious code of 
God, with creeds extracted and thrown to the winds. If there is 
a Heaven there is no religion in it, for Heaven without perfection 
would be a self-contradiction, and perfection needs no religion. 
"Thou shalt not kill," uttered in our eternal home, would be as 
anomalous as "Thou shalt not waste ice, " uttered at the north 
pole, if there is one. Yet what seems a contrariety, is the other 
fact that the soul of mankind is tending upward in its aspirations ; 
and that which seems like a religious evolution is already in pro- 
cess of development. We believe most heartily in the pure 
church, wherever it can be found. We believe that it holds the 
same relation to the soul that the home holds to the body or the 
school to the mind. Every creed is born of the devil, and the 
church does not know it. A creed is a splitting process that re- 
duces the diamond to diamond-dust. There is but one religion, 



306 



IMMORTALITY 



and that is the religion of God. There is but one church and that 
is the church of Immortality. 

The reach of ultimate progress will throw the present 
race against a stone wall of obstruction, to use a figure of speech. 
If you ask the general citizen what, in his opinion, will be the 
result of the current rate of improvement, he will conceive only 
the luxury of invention. Speed across the continent over ground, 
or under ground, will reach two hundred miles an hour ; and a 
man leaving Boston at six o'clock in the morning will sleep in 
San Francisco before midnight of the same day. To this class of 
thinkers, it seems as if the object of the Creator is to add mere 
physical comforts to imperfect beings. It should be borne in 
mind that, in proportion as you increase the breadth you lessen 
the length. Human nature is fast flying to pieces under the 
strain of modern speed, invention, luxury, and discovery. The 
nerves are wrought up to their highest tension. Brains are giving 
way. Excitement is killing the heart's life. The men and women 
who have the most of this world's fascinations, enjoy living the 
least. They are dry in blood, pale in health, prostrated in stom- 
ach : and instead of owning normal organs, are carrying about 
corpses concealed in their anatomy. When the locomotive travels 
two hundred miles an hour, or the air-carriage sails in the high- 
ways of space, man will mature, reproduce and die, all in less than 
one -third of the now allotted duration of life. 

While longevity will prevail among the few, the time of 
living will shorten in every decade among the many. Hence, two 
races will arise ; one devoted to the world and its painful allure- 
ments ; the other devoted to self-elevation and the solid blessings 
of existence. A new name will be invented to apply to those who 
are sensible : who love pure air, sunshine, open pleasures, lawns, 
gardens, fountains, fruits, flowers, music, purity of food, clean 
water, exercise, exhilaration of health, vigorous organs, perfect 
digestion, sweet sleep, inspiring books, delightful companionship, 
happy home-life, and the ruddy years of extreme age. The same 
old name will apply to those who follow the excited idiocies of the 
world : who huddle in cities ; breathe sewer gas until their systems 
are foul ; eat dead food : rush from empty pleasures to headaches 
and belching stomachs, then back again ; dart hither and thither 
over the earth in florid impatience ; absorb stained wine and mud- 
colored beer in profusion, until their livers are turned to rock and 



A LOOK LORIVARD 



307 



their kidneys decay while yet alive ; get supposed pleasures out of 
scraping music, the fools of comedy, unnatural flowers, obscene 
pictures, the nude in art emanating from the nude in brain, trashy 
novels, the slush of newspapers, and the scorn of morals ; and 
these modem mummies will, in their brief lives and shrivelled 
digestion, then' leering dementia and sleepless nights, hold up to 
ridicule their widely separated fellow mortals who look down upon 
them in every plane of society, because forsooth they, the modern 
mummies, outnumber them thirty to one. Hence will arise two 
races. 

The present era will end in collapse. 

This is the 648th Ralston Principle. It represents a law that 
is now at work and has been at work since the earth began to roll off 
its periods. A glance at the great changes of geology and of his- 
tory, will shown a sudden decadence just prior to the revolution. 
A learned man was recently asked what, in his opinion, would be 
the condition and circumstances of the earth and its races ten 
thousand years from now. He replied that the earth would be 
dominated by the white race to the exclusion, or annihilation of 
all those portions of the anti-racials that stood in the way of prog- 
ress ; that the extermination would occur largely through inter- 
marriage and the dying out of the offspring, according to natural 
laws. He further thought that inventions and genius would con- 
nect all parts of the earth, by air, water and land : that continuous 
bridges of some kind would, with the extraordinary speed of 
transit, enable a person to circle the globe in five days, and go to 
Europe in fifteen hours ; that man would be a better endowed 
being then than now : and life extended under normal conditions 
to a century at least : climates would change : the earth would be 
of a more even temperature in its habitable zones : vegetation would 
suit the exact needs of man : fruits and flowers all change to even 
more enjoyable varieties ; wild growth disappear : savage animals 
be unknown ; and health become perfected. He thought the 
great cities would stand, and cover many times more territory 
than now. 

Much of this prediction is visionary dreaming. Every 
evidence at command at present, points conclusively to the some 
day destruction of the great cities. Perfect health is not possible 



308 



IMMORTALITY 



under excitement or worry ; and the speed of such fast life would 
soon overwhelm the mind. It is not true that man will be a better 
endowed being then than now, except in so far as the limited 
progress of the era may permit. No person to-day is wiser than 
the men of four thousand years ago. We can produce no Virgil, 
Cicero, Demosthenes, Homer, Solomon, or Moses. Wisdom pales 
before the advancing steps of luxury. That the earth will be domi- 
nated by the white race is certain, and the laws of extermination 
are well known to be as stated. But this will occur long before 
ten thousand years, or one thousand years. The next century will 
witness an extraordinary leap in that direction. 

If man is to use this planet as a revelling place, and prob- 
ably as a beer-garden, the area of which shall be co-extensive with 
the land and part of the seas, then the plan of creation has been 
lost sight of. God is not asleep. His purposes are tending onward 
with mighty strength and gathering momentum to their conclusion. 
Nothing can stop them. The limit of man's powers is well known. 
The progress henceforward in the human race will be confined to 
a small percentage ; and the other directions of improvement in 
this period will occur in the changing force of the land, and the 
uplifting of all conditions of the earth as a better dwelling place for 
a people yet to come. In other words, with the exception of a few 
the human race has reached its ultimatum of progress ; and the 
few stand as heralds of the revolution that must follow. This is 
the story, always repeated, of the past. It has never had an ex- 
ception, and it never will. The 62 2d Ralston Principle tells us 
that every advance in the earth's progress has been anticipated 
through a forerunner ; and the 610th Ralston Principle tells us 
that when conditions are ripe, life will appear regardless of evo- 
lution. 

Collapse is natural to an impending change. In fact, one 
period could not undergo the throes of passing into another unless 
a serious depression heralded the change. This is more especially 
the rule in geological eras, when each break has occurred as one 
epoch leaped, not drifted, into another. It has also been the rule 
of change in the period itself, but in less marked degree with fewer 
lights and shadows. In other words, human progress has not been 
a smooth inclined plane although the ascent has had a steady aver- 
age. A double law has always been at work : first, a small 
minority of life has risen high enough to give a clear promise of 



A LOOK FORWARD 



309 



the impending leap ; second, an enormous majority has overstepped 
the height of its period and plunged hopelessly downward. Hence 
the collapse. Any student of history is familiar with the workings 
of this double law. 

Nothing is so contrary to the established order of things 
as to suppose that the present race is to work out its future great- 
ness. It is also unwarranted to assume that present conditions 
are to continue. Periods have been shorter as existence has ad- 
vanced, and changes have occurred more sharply ; but never has 
the longest era stood still. The suggestion that man is to remain 
as he is, and the earth to continue the same, or nearly the same, 
is denied by every fact of the past. We know well enough that 
we are passing through a decisive period of advance, both in itself 
and in its rise above the epoch that preceded it. The discovery 
of America by the Caucasians only four centuries ago is a mark of 
significance in the march of progress. The story is ever shifting. 
It is on, on, on to the end and purpose of creation. It is, there- 
fore, perfectly clear that present conditions will not continue long, 
and that this race must announce the herald of the next. Then 
comes the collapse. 

It is not probable that the face of the earth will be wrecked; 
as this would destroy vegetation, animal life and all that long train 
of development which has been so carefully prepared. The archi- 
tecture of the past fifty million years would be wantonly wasted. 
In the severer strains to which this fragile crust has been subjected 
it has stood well. The uprising of the mountains was necessary 
for man's occupancy, for it gave the brooks, rivers and lakes ; with 
strata of water to make the wells that abound beneath the earth. 
If this crust has withstood the menaces of the more violent past, 
it can certainly endure the changes of the gentler future. Xo 
earthquakes will rend the earth ; no volcanoes overrun it ; no sun- 
death chill it; no collision in space smash it. The globe will 
endure. It is true that if God should for a moment neglect this 
tiny orb, or relax His will toward its destiny, any one of a dozen 
laws of the universe would instantly blight it. 

The collapse must occur in the race, and this is all. The 
earth will go on blossoming as a garden ; in all respects it will im- 
prove and rise to its newer plane. Man will drop just as the water 
lifted by the wheel ascends to the top and overflows to its fall. 
Progress means onward movement. Imperfection moving onward 



310 



IMMORTALITY 



and even upward describes the parabola. The double law referred 
to, points to the few who shall herald the coming change and the 
many who shall plunge beneath the wheel. As stated in our black 
chapter, about ninety-three per cent, of humanity are insincere. 
There is not an insincere rule in all creation ; not an act or motive 
is tinctured with this erratic principle. It cannot stand for ever, 
nor for long. The restless discontent of all classes against them- 
selves and against each other and all others is the growing instru- 
ment of change. The seven per cent, of honesty is a feeble defense 
against the overwhelming forces of insincerity. Policy and aggran- 
dizement hold the hollow fabric upon the bubble-image ; but when 
the turn comes it will come quickly. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 



COBWEBS OF BELIEF. 



[_649_] 




HE next period of existence is the ethical era. 

This is the 649th Ralston Principle. It represents a 
fact as well as an order of succession in the unfolding of 



events. By ethical we mean the supremacy of the soul ; 
as this epoch in which we now live is known as that of mind su- 
premac}^. The three divisions of man are the body, mind and 
soul. The body has back of it all the physical history of the 
earth. The mind has back of it all the intelligence of vitality, or 
growing vegetation and animal life. The physical represents im- 
perfection of development merely, as that of itself means the short- 
coming of incompletion. The mental represents imperfection of 
justice, which comes from the lack of completion ; a workmanship 
yet unfinished ; a machine with defects arising from want of all its 
parts. 

The soul is anything you choose to understand it. It is 
the most flexible force in all existence. If you interpret it as a 
power superior to the mind, such it is. If you conceive it to be 
a spiritual essence, such it is ; if a ghost, it is a ghost : if a pure 
mind, that is it ; if a phase of religious zeal, so it is ; if a part of 
the nature of God, it is that ; if a breath, a spirit of vital charac- 
ter, that is what it is ; if a superior intelligence, that is it ; if an 
entity, it is an entity ; if a being, walking inside the shape of 
man, why it is so ; if a second self, living by itself, such it is. 
You cannot name anything that the soul is not. The love of life, 
the hope of a future, the yearning after immortality, are all set 
down in religious works and taught in theological schools, as 
proofs of the existence of this thing, the soul ; and the proof of 
eternal life is most strongly based upon the same love, hope and 
yearning ; a triple evidence that can prove anything. 

Man falls asleep and he is unconscious. Where is his 
soul ? Is it standing by his side ; is it lying down within him ; 
is it kneeling down before him ; is it sitting in a chair in another 

(311) 



312 



IMMORTALITY 



part of the room ; is it out of the building taking the liberty of its 
vacation, and will he wake before it comes back ; is it in his 
brain, his lungs, his heart, his whole body ; is it a part or all of 
him ; is it large or small ; is it as large as a room or building, or 
as small as a hat or coin ? Who knows ? What is its shape ? 
Some say it is co-extensive with the body, taking the same shape ; 
and they prove it by citing the appearance of ghosts. A very re- 
liable man tells us that he recently saw a ghost. He thought it 
was his brother, for it wore a coat like his, trousers like his, had a 
face with side-whiskers like his ; and the look was that of his 
own brother. He saw the shape of the body, head, shoulders, 
arms, hands, legs, torso, all the same. This ghost did not appear 
to walk ; it was discovered standing a few feet away, and seen 
clearly as the man looked up from the book he was reading. He 
even addressed it and called it "Brother," but, without a word 
or sign, it ceased to be. The circumstances were such that he 
could not doubt his senses. He immediately told others ; so there 
could be no doubt of his honesty. His appearance of alarm was 
genuine ; the man himself was honest ; so there is no doubt he 
was affected as he described. An hour later a telegram reached 
the house. " My brother is dead," he exclaimed ; and such was 
the announcement, although he refused to open the dispatch and 
left it to others to do. 

It is from incidents of this kind that persons argue that 
the soul is shaped like the body. It has legs to walk with ; but 
can come through solid walls with perfect ease ; and never walks ; 
it glides, sails, moves ; apppears ; is gone. Why needs it eyes, if 
it can see in the dark ? Every such spectre as we have described 
is as capable of appearing by night as well as by day. From well 
attested cases, it is now settled that when an occurrence of this 
kind is about to happen, a flood of light of more or less fulness 
appears in advance. It is not the light of day or artificial light of 
night ; but a glow like that which we see in the brain when it is 
excited. It is the same glow that shines from the eyes of an ani- 
mal. All magnetic persons know that when the warmth of power 
takes possession of the mind, the brain shines within as with a 
phosphorescent fire, always soft and subdued. This light is of 
special service, especially in the dark. The cat and all the feline 
tribe, as well as spirited animals generally, are able to see their 
way clearly at night ; owing, probably, to this special faculty. 



COBWEBS OF BELIEF 



313 



At any rate, the test has been well made among men and women, 
and it is true that the fire of an intensely magnetic brain is able 
to shine outwardly so as to furnish some light. Entering a dark 
room, even from one that is brilliantly lighted, so that the con- 
trast is sharp upon the vision ; and going part way across the 
floor, we have seen two balls of fire shining a distance away, 
which we knew belonged to the cat ; yet, strange to say, this 
brain-fire of the animal was reflected on the highly polished floor 
and seen also in a mirror, showing that such glow has some light- 
ing qualities. 

As the flood of light that always accompanies the appearance 
of the so-called ghost is identical, in larger degree, with that of the 
brain, it is fair to assume that it originates there. A man who had 
three times seen the vision of a son who was wounded and who. 
just before death, on three successive nights cried piteously for his 
father, stated that he saw a light fill the room about a minute in 
advance of the spectre. On the third night he announced it to 
others a full minute before the son's form appeared, as the light 
had come. All this is explained in our book, Transference of 
Thought. The brain is capable of emitting light. We have seen 
in the human eyes the same large floods of phosphorescence that 
may be witnessed in the eyes of the cat after dark. We have seen 
an active vitality shine with the same fire. While it is not com- 
mon it is possible to every man and woman. This is due to active 
electrical conditions within the nervous system, accompanying 
anger, passion, love or any excitement of special intensity. The 
transference of a thought or a feeling when propelled from another 
with sufficient energy to reach its object, necessarily excites the 
brain of the latter, and the glow would naturally follow. It would 
seem to be in the room, just as the picture on the wall seems to be 
on the wall when w r hat you see of it is in the brain. 

It is impossible to distinguish between what is outward 
and what is inward ; for that which is actually outward must be 
seen inwardly in order to be recognized. The largest object is 
reduced to a point finer than the sharp end of a small needle, by 
converging lines that take it to the brain and there excite vision at 
this small focus. The forms seen in delirium are pictured from 
the brain in the brain at the same point where all outward forms 
are impressed upon that organ ; that is, at the juncture of the optic 
nerve with the gray phosphorescent intelligence called mind. 



314 



IMMORTALITY 



Under the excitement of the sense of vision, this fine point 
contains all that we see outwardly ; and here, also, is seen a 
return picture of each thing that strongly impresses us. Here, at 
this fine point, is seen the face and form of one we love ; until 
often, with thinking, the fair image stands in reality before us. 
Every great actor has made his ideal counterpart take shape and 
vision-life out upon the stage, where he could be beheld and acted 
to. In fever, another excitement plays upon this same focus 
within the brain, and images are seen, some human, some gro- 
tesque, some hideous, but all apparently out upon the air, or in 
the room about the sufferer. The sight is as clear as that of reality; 
it is certainly clearer than the presence of a ghost ; yet when a 
person sees the latter, he swears it is real ; but the delirium he 
knows is in the brain. Without the brain he could not see the 
ghost. If it is real it must make its picture at that fine point 
within the mind's scope. 

Another man who had seen a fever-spectre, resembling a 
burglar, and a ghost resembling a distant friend, declared the 
former to be the more real and natural, coming as it did at that 
time when his memory was clear ; while the latter had the habit 
of all ghosts, melting into appearance and melting out again like 
an evanescent and intangible dream. The brain is ordinarily 
excited in ordinary vision ; it is specially excited in other cases ; 
and the same inward action occurs in each and every instance. 
We therefore say that it is absolutely impossible to distinguish 
between the outward fact and the inward creation, except by uses 
and experiences. It is a scientific truth that ghosts that seem as 
real as facts, are inward excitements. A faculty, once in common 
use and probably to be revived, is that inner force which grasps 
distant visions and urges them into real pictures in the mind, 
placing them apparently out in the air, on the floor or upon the 
ground ; and known as telepathy, or transference of thought or 
feeling. Under certain conditions any person is capable of receiv- 
ing such impressions and seeing what they believe to be ghosts. 
What is intensely felt by another may be transmitted to others ; 
and this accounts for two or more persons seeing the same ' ' spirit' ' 
inwardly. Thus, when A's father was dying he was in agony 
to look upon his son who was a thousand miles away. His keen 
eagerness reached A and the latter saw his father's ghost. The 
appearance was so sharply defined and realistic, that he intensified 



COBWEBS OF BELIEF 



315 



it strongly enough in his own brain as to create an impression on 
B and C who were present. The vision was successive. A saw it 
first ; but just before it left his vision, B saw the same "presence" 
modified, and C saw it a second later, modified. A clothed his 
"ghost" with certain details of memory, one of which was trans- 
ferred to B and another to C. This proved that B and C obtained 
their impression from A, and that the "ghost" was not a thing in 
the room, but an impression on the brain. Such an occurrence is 
rare. It is not often that two persons see the same "sight," or 
same object. When they do, they prove, as they think, the real- 
ism of the ' i ghost ' ' by the concurrence. Xo case that is authentic 
can escape this explanation. There should be sense enough left in 
even an ordinary mind to know that the so-called spirit presence is 
but a mental creation ; yet some persons are deluded to such an 
extent that they actually believe to the contrary. 

Another class of mistakes may be charged to the same 
misunderstanding ; where other senses are affected. Hearing and 
touch are the most common of these. Some persons feel an icy 
hand on the arm, face, neck, or other parts ; or a warm touch ; or 
a finger thrust against -the skin : and other similar morbid mani- 
festations, which they ascribe to spirits, or influences from the 
dead. They are so morbidly constructed that you cannot make 
them believe that there is no touch known or knowable except in 
the delicate and excessively sensitive tissue of the brain. If this 
organ must interpret touch when it is real, it certainly could, under 
excitement, create touch and apply it to any part of the body. 
Imagination itself has often conjured up real pain. The same is 
true of hearing. Sounds, screams, calls, and everything in the 
category of noise, have been stimulated in the brain ; for it is in 
this organ that all sound is given life. Sever the ear-nerve from 
the gray matter within, and a clap of loudest thunder would be 
vacuity deeper than silence in the brain. There is no sound except 
as the mind makes it seem to be. 

[ ~~650 ] . 

Vitality takes shape in mental transit. 

This is the 650tl} Ralston Principle. It represents a law of 
partly hidden life, and enables us to get closer to the solution of 
some of the perplexing problems of existence. A sharp picture 
may be transferred by sheer intensity of brain waves from one 



316 



IMMORTALITY 



mind to another. This has often occurred. In faint degrees it is 
occurring every minute. The power may be cultivated by various 
methods. It grows on itself, and use makes each subsequent im- 
pression clearer. A complete vitality, representing the whole 
being, the personality, may be thrown into the brain of another, 
no matter how far distant. 

For some reason this transfer of a complete vitality is more 
readily accomplished when the body is parting with it, as at the 
moment of death. A person who thinks energetically of another 
may, by intense waves alone, project his whole image upon the 
mind of the other. Thus Mr. W. resolved on a certain evening at 
seven o' clock to appear as a vision before Miss L. , some miles away. 
He had previously produced certain mental impressions on her 
with partial success. At the time in question she was sitting at 
the table, with a piece of cake in her hand ; having no reason to 
suspect what was to occur. A faint outline of W. was seen in the 
doorway, as though he was trying to see her while concealing him- 
self. She was not sure that she saw clearly, and charged it to a 
headache which had taken possession of her a few minutes before. 
After a pause, the form of W. stood in the doorway, stepped back 
a foot or two, then slowly entered the room. The face, hands and 
part of the clothing were perfect in likeness ; and a strange flower 
was worn in the button-hole of the coat. W. seemed so real that 
Miss L. addressed him by name, and arose to greet him. As she did 
so, he gave a laugh accompanied by a slight cough and melted into 
nothingness. No one of those who were present at the table saw 
or heard anything of the kind ; but they vouched for the honest 
belief of the young lady that she had seen something extraordinary. 
Mr. W. afterwards called, having the strange flower which he had 
procured solely for the purpose of the experiment. The whole 
transaction proved that so-called ghosts or spirits are not the 
soul part of the body, but the vitality acting as an entity, or 
entirety. 

It may easily be seen how unwarranted it is to claim that 

the visions of other people are their souls ; the supposed immortal 
part of themselves. Do you imagine that Mr. W. sent his soul 
into the dining-room of Miss L. in that experiment ? If so, why 
did that soul wear his clothing and the strange flower, when he 
himself had the clothing on and the flower never left him? It 
was merely a mental picture of his vital entity ; such as he knew 



COBWEBS OF BELIEF 



317 



and intensified. Any other flower could have been substituted in 
his mind, and the imagination would have transmitted the bit of 
fancy in place of the fact. This has been done. Thus Mr. H. , 
projecting an impression of himself upon another's mind, thought 
intensely of a long black coat instead of a short blue one, and the 
former was seen. This shows that the brain is the creative agent. 

Under great stress of circumstances a person, not dying, 
may transmit a picture of his vitality, in full or in partial shape, 
to another. Death, however, where there is consciousness to the 
last, is almost sure to give the mind of the dying person an extra- 
ordinary intensity which is able to stamp itself upon some other 
mind, hundreds or thousands of miles away. A dying mother, 
thinking of her son i a child, longing for mother or father ; a hus- 
band, wife, sister, brother, or other loved one, would naturally 
bend all the vigor of final life toward the absent relative or friend ; 
and the chances are that some vision would be seen. In all the 
cases that we have investigated, it appears that the deceased had 
retained consciousness to the very last. There is no authentic case 
in existence, unless it has escaped our notice, where an uncon- 
scious mind has projected the vital shape upon another at the time 
of death. It seems necessary to have the concurrence of two con- 
ditions ; first, consciousness ; second, intense thinking of another ; 
before the ghost will manifest itself. When it does, it is identi- 
cally the same as that form which Mr. W. caused to appear before 
Miss L. No one pretends that it was the soul. It is equally 
groundless to think that the soul walks into the presence of another, 
although death adds its solemnity to the occurrence. It is merely 
vitality taking an impressionable shape. Every ghost, every spirit, 
every vision may be explained by this rule. The law is an ex- 
ceedingly simple one. Fright and rarity help to create alarm, and 
this builds a mountain of belief out of mental picture. Science 
has proceeded far enough to-day in psychical research to be able 
to lay down the principle with exactitude. All claims to the con- 
trary originate in dishonesty or else a morbid mental condition. 

Vitality, returning to its fund, dissolves its shape. 

This is the 651st Ralston Principle. It represents a law of 
changing life, in which death compels the body to part with its 
vitality. All reference is made to human beings. No case is 



318 



IMMORTALITY 



known or can be found, as far as it is possible to ascertain, where 
an animal has propelled its vital shape upon a human mind. It 
seems that brain waves, or thought waves, do not pass from the 
lower species to the higher. On the other hand, there is evidence 
that an animal has received impressions from men and women, 
and even from little children ; as in the case of a drowning boy 
who had fallen into a small pond back of the house ; a large New- 
foundland dog, being asleep in the front room, suddenly awaking 
with a bound, leaping through a window with force enough to 
break the glass and sash-frame, and arriving at the pond in time 
to save the boy. There had been no cry, as the child was under 
water most of the brief time ; his sister, standing by, being too 
frightened to utter a sound until she saw the bounding dog. It is 
very easy to collect instances of human impressions on animal 
brains ; but impossible to find an instance in which an animal was 
able to project thought, feeling or image on the mind of a member 
of the human family. The facts are significant. 

All evidences of the transmission of the vital shape are 
confined to life, or to a time preceding death. It is not certain 
that, after the breath has left the body, the form has appeared to 
others ; but there are some cases that suggest an occurrence, as 
where a man died in India at a time corresponding to eleven 
o'clock in England ; and a vision appeared about two hours later 
in the latter country. We will not undertake to explain this, as 
there is no certainty that the time was accurately observed. 
Doubt is thrown on all claims that a ghost of the dead has ap- 
peared after decease. Yet, if true, it might be explained on the 
theory of mental waves still in the air, finding their objects. It is 
satisfactory to know that all clear cases show a transmission at or 
before the moment of dissolution. That the ghosts are mere men- 
tal pictures arising from an intense action of a conscious mind 
toward the object of its thought, is as clear as any fact in the 
world. It is placed beyond all doubt, Warnings and presenti- 
ments, operating in advance, are all due to some third mind tak- 
ing part in the event. Thus in the case of William Terriss, the 
English actor, who was assassinated in London in December, 
1897, a fellow actor saw the deed in a dream the night before ; 
but he caught the intention of the murderer from the latter' s 
mind ; as seems apparent from the variation of details, giving a 
material change to the incident. Sometimes a designed victim 



COBWEBS OF BELIEF 



319 



of a crime catches the purpose ahead of the event and saves him- 
self. 

Enough has been said to enable us to arrive at certain 
conclusions in regard to vital shape ; and we will re-state them 
here in succinct form. 

1. A mind may communicate with another mind by certain 
brain waves, which use the ether or inner air, as sound uses the 
atmosphere. 

2. All that we see, hear, feel, taste or smell, when real and 
substantial, must be created in the brain ; and there it is given 
birth. 

3. In the same part of the brain and by the operation of the 
same law of impression, an image, unreal, may appear as real. 

4. Sense impressions, real or unreal, take material appear- 
ance ; so that the mind makes us see, hear and feel for real what 
is unreal. 

5. A certain species of excitement may give rise to the vision- 
power of the brain ; as delirium, intense thinking, nervous strain, 
or the beating of ether-waves set in motion by another person 
laboring under excitement or strain. 

6. One person may so intensify his thought as to project his 
full image, face, form and dress upon another any distance away. 

7. Such image appears to the other as a ghost or spirit. It is 
merely a mental picture, conveying his bodily form to the mind 
of another. 

8. Such a ghost is not the soul, and is no more related to the 
immortal part of man than is the hat or coat he wears. 

9. Dying persons, retaining consciousness to the last and 
thinking intensely of a loved one, are almost sure to transmit 
such energy to the mind of the other, and thus appear as a ghost. 

10. Such ghost is a mere vital-shape transmitted in the ordi- 
nary way as are thoughts and feelings in life. 

11. Vitality is not the vital-shape. 

12. The image which is seen is a photograph of the vitality ; 
but no part of the vitality reaches the person to whom the picture 
or ghost is transmitted. 

13. The ghost is not the soul ; it is not the body ; it is not 
the vitality ; it bears the same relation to the body as does the 
photograph sent to a distance by mail or messenger. 

14. If a man mails a photograph of his form, face, dress and 



320 



IMMORTALITY 



all, as is usually taken, to any person, say thousands of miles 
away ; he does not send his body, his soul, or his vitality, but 
merely a picture of his shape. 

15. It is as correct to say that the photograph is proof of im- 
mortality as that the ghost is proof of the same. 

16. When vitality departs from a body, as at death, it' dis- 
solves and goes to join the general fund from which it came. 

17. If the vital-shape lives after death, it is due to the fact 
that it has been impressed upon some mind, and that mind sends 
it forth to others by the intense waves of thought. 

[—652— ] 
The soul has never been seen. 

This is the 652cl Ealston Principle. It represents a truth in 
creation and a hidden law. We shall soon be led to recognize the 
difference between the vitality and the soul. There is an entire 
volume written by a scholarly thinker, who asserts that he has 
proved life after death by proving that there is a sub-conscious 
mind. His whole energy is expended upon producing an array 
of facts that are known to be true, and which go no further than 
to show a channel of communication between minds, other than 
by the ordinary senses. It is established, in the book referred to, 
that trance mediums, speaking through some supposed foreign 
person, are able to catch the thoughts of others ; that things hidden 
are seen distinctly ; that absent persons are discovered and their 
doings disclosed ; that sealed letters may be read unopened ; and 
all that line of fact is gone over in careful detail. What is the 
conclusion reached? Why, that these things are proof of the ex- 
istence of an immortal soul. How extremely childish ! Because 
operations that are usual though unconscious, are laid bare once 
in a while, do they prove the existence of the soul ? If so, how ? 

A clergyman of thorough honesty said that he would 
prove to us the existence of the soul, by showing us evidence of 
the spirit world. But if he had been able to piwe a spirit world, 
how would that have proved a soul? Where the connection is 
established, does not appear. We accepted the invitation. He 
led us to a genuine medium, one who could exhibit her powers in 
or out of the trance state. She was honest. Many of the appear- 
ances of a spirit- visitation are fraudulent, and may be reproduced 
by prestidigitators so skilfully as to defy detection. She gathered 



COBWEBS OF BELIEF 



321 



a circle about her, and proceeded to make tables move, instru- 
ments play and other things became active, contrary to known 
physical laws. She satisfied us that she could destroy or suspend 
the law of gravity. We had seen the same thing done before. A 
few spirits were said to be holding communication with us ; but, 
if this was true, the style of conversation, the subject matters, the 
class of spirits and the general effect, were calculated to leave a 
very cheap impression of the spirit world. That there was a force 
at work outside the medium, yet connected with her vitality, was 
true ; but it spoke of nothing that cannot be explained, as we shall 
see in subsequent pages. 

We have gathered testimony from non-professional 
spiritualists ; always selecting the honest ones, if possible. Ad- 
mitting all they say to be true, whether it is so or not, although 
they believe it true, we find that, if there is a spirit world about 
us, or elsewhere, and the evidences produced through mediums 
and others are proof of the character of that world and its inhabit- 
ants, the whole system, world, spirits and all, must be set down 
as the cheapest and most baneful affairs beneath or above the 
sky. It is without an elevating or ennobling feature ; not a breath 
of inspiration, not a word of hope, not a beautiful thought, nor a 
noble purpose ; but low Indians, Spanish brigands, French char- 
latans, all dead and talking. Out of four hundred and twenty-one 
reported cases of instigating spirits who oblige mediums by coming 
to them to talk from the world of spirits to mortals in dark rooms, 
not one of them if alive would be considered respectable enough 
to be invited to your home. The stuff they talk, the broken 
and senseless rubbish they offer, cannot impress a thoughtful per- 
son with their virtues, value or elevating tastes. They triumph in 
telling where some key is hidden, whose grandfather was whose 
brother-in-law, what made Billy lame, laugh haw-haw, pound a 
table, scratch Jim on a slate, and go hence in perspiration. Yet 
the believers in this system tell us that this is proof of a spirit- 
world, of immortality, of Heaven. Is the glorious abode of God's 
angels made up of such truck? All these things are explainable 
by other laws than those called supernatural ; as we shall see. 

No one ever beheld the soul, for the reason that the 
immortal part of us comes by metamorphosis after death if it 
comes at all. There is the soul embryo during life, and it is 
called the soul even before death ; we often refer to it as such, 



322 



IMMORTALITY 



The- true soul, however, does not come into being until death 
sends us on to the next step, whatever that may be. Our present 
purpose is to show that the cheap and pretentious claims of occult- 
ists do not prove anything at all, not even the existence of life 
outside the body. There is no fact in psychology, in spiritualism, 
in clairvoyance, in the ghost records, or in anything else, however 
astounding, that cannot be fully admitted and yet be continually 
occurring under present nervous and mental conditions. 

The nervous system has creative powers. 

This is the 653d Ralston Principle. It represents a law that 
is not yet fully understood. We have not space in this volume for 
a full discussion of the facts connected with the principle, for an 
entire book might be devoted to it and them. Some things may 
be stated in condensed form. In the first place, the mind can see 
whatever it chooses to see, provided the necessary time and trouble 
are taken. A man who thoroughly resolves to create a vision out 
in the air before him, can do so. The actors we have referred to, 
are examples of this power. It has been demonstrated in many 
ways and by many persons. There are three lines of proof that 
would well repay any investigator who is willing to devote time and 
and effort to ascertaining the full value of them. 

1. It is absolutely certain that the human mind can force the 
vital shape of the body or any other image it selects, upon another 
mind, no matter how far away. Thus a person can appear to be in 
two places at one and the same time ; although the secondary, or 
visit-appearance is merely a mental photograph, created by the sim- 
ple force of the imagination and projected by ordinary thought 
waves. This transaction is what theosophists call the visit of one's 
astral body ; which they declare to be an evidence of the soul. There 
is not the slightest connection between the one and the other. Such 
a transmission is no more wonderful than the mailing of an ordinary 
photograph in an envelope was once considered. A photograph 
does not prove the existence of the soul. 

2. It is absolutely certain that the mind can draw to itself the 
vital shape of the body of another person, and thus appear to 
receive a visit from that person. This is done by a most intense 
receptive action of the brain, whereby it calls in and magnifies the 
thought waves that emanate from another. The two cases may 



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323 



seem antagonistic at first ; but the processes are as follows : Every 
mind is sending forth ordinary waves of thought or feeling ; and 
every mind is receiving ordinary waves of thought or feeling. 
Thus the interchange is continuous. It is, however, an almost 
unconscious transaction, as far as knowledge of what is occurring 
is concerned. We know, yet are not conscious that we know. 
Now, when the sender intensifies his own waves they may acquire 
the power of projecting a mental picture or shape upon the mind 
of another, and appear as real as any substance or life ; but when 
the receiver intensifies his own receptive- waves, he is enabled to 
bring the thoughts and images of other persons before him. All 
this is the working of the subconscious faculty, and has no more 
relation to the soul than any ordinary photograph has. 

3. In addition to the power of sending and catching thoughts 
and mental pictures, there is a more general faculty of establishing 
new functions of the mind by the creative powers it possesses. 
The subject is almost a new one in the history of science, and our 
meaning is .for that reason more difficult of explanation. In order 
to approach an understanding of it, the first thing to recall is that 
the mind is an electrical battery, having great intelligence. Its 
own substance is gray matter. This is the composition of the 
brain, and of the ganglionic cells throughout the body to which 
the brain is attached by connecting nerves. The gray matter is 
phosphorus, organized ; that is, not mineral phosphorus. The 
nerves and ganglia are composed of the same substance with more 
fibrous Aveaving for strength. The action of the mind is phosphor- 
escent, accompanied by keen, sharp waves or vibrations, and the 
action of the nerves is electrical ; the two working as one force 
constitute the brain of man. 

Whatever this brain may be in the nature behind all 
these exhibitions of a wonderful genius that made such an organ 
possible, it is true that it employs the two most subtle and most 
powerful forces in nature. Electricity itself is irresistible. It 
flows in two uses ; one to attract and one to repel ; it is positive 
and negative. As a positive force it resembles gravity, w r hen 
applied in quiescent form to matter ; as a negative force it opposes 
gravity. Thus it has power to overcome the attraction of the 
earth. Mind and intelligence are separable in the same sense that 
magnetism and electricity are separable ; one is the special use of 
the other. There can be no growth without intelligence ; yet the 



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IMMORTALITY 



mind may be lacking. The idiot is deficient in this regard, al- 
though a grand intelligence carries on the functions of digestion, 
respiration and circulation, thus keeping life and health perfect. 
The tree has intelligence, but no mind. The dog has intelligence, 
and mind ; but no reasoning powers except through mere instinc- 
tive memory ; and thus the higher brutes are called intelligent 
animals. 

The nervous system may exist without the mind, but the 
latter cannot exist without the former ; it is a part of it. The 
nervous system is capable of the display of special powers of the 
most extraordinary kind ; and more especially so when the mind 
is disconnected from it. This is seen in many ways, and leads to 
the conclusion that when the mind holds sway over it, such powers 
are not easily manifested. Thus the person whose consciousness 
is suspended, is sustained in life by the vital functions of the body 
unassisted by any act of the will* So the person who is subjected 
to mesmeric sleep, possesses a power that it is impossible to 
acquire in normal life ; and here we see an almost complete sepa- 
ration of mind from nerves, although the brain is in full sympa- 
thy with the latter. 

[ —654—] 

Nerve -vitality is part of the general fund. 

This is the 654th Ralston Principle. It means in fact much 
more than it expresses in words. A frail woman, emaciated in 
the last stages of consumption, who had never been able to lift a 
hundred pounds in her best days, was endowed with a power suf- 
ficient to overcome the force of a strong man more than twice her 
size and weight and a hundred times her strength. This fact, and 
others similar, have been verified in many instances. "Whence 
came that peculiar increase of power, under such adverse circum- 
stances ? She had it not. The half of her exertions would have 
lacerated and torn apart the very cords and nerve-fibers of her 
body, had the attempt been made an hour before in a mechanical 
way. The fact is that her nerve-vitality was a part of that gen- 
eral fund of vital force which we have described in an earlier 
chapter. Life was ebbing away, because her habits of living did 
not draw enough from that fund to keep her system in repair. 
It is well known that the mere possession of this energy alone, 
will make disease impossible. 



COBWEBS OF BELIEF 



325 



She drew from that fund, under special excitement, 
what she could not get in ordinary life. She acquired, not larger 
muscles, bigger bones, more tenacious nerves, but something, 
without which, all else is nothing ; she acquired vitality. The 
emergency drew it forth and it was hers. A little man, in dying, 
resisted the combined strength of four heavy men. He did not 
possess it, but simply took it for the time being. As his system 
was not prepared to hold it, he could not retain the vitality ; it 
fled and life went also. We could repeat many thoroughly au- 
thentic incidents of the kind ; but one is as good as a hundred. 
It seems that the mind must undergo some change sufficient to 
separate it from the nervous system in order to put the latter in 
touch with the great fund of vitality from which it draws this ex- 
cess of energy. Such separation may be merely fright, or it may 
be courage ; it may be resolution of a high order, or some sublime 
faith ; but whatever it is, there must be an overwhelming of the 
mental powers by the nervous agencies. Yet all the while the 
great fund that surrounds the earth is ever ready to be called upon 
to give man the assistance he needs. 

The most interesting phase of any transaction is that 
which seems the most puzzling ; although it may be in direct line 
with ordinary uses of the same faculty, as in the present instance. 
We have said that electricity is associated with the powers of the 
nervous system, and it is probable that all life is electrical. Few 
persons are able to understand that the very essence of existence, 
especially in the animal kingdom, is electricity. The chief diffi- 
culty in the problem is to decide how far mechanical electricity 
differs from vital. It may be that they are one and the same ; 
and, like the forces of nature, have a double use. Whatever may 
be the conclusion it is nevertheless true that they are exactly alike 
in their operations ; and this similarity justifies the belief that 
they are associated. 

As has been stated, electricity is positive and negative 
in its uses ; and is able to overcome gravity. This is seen in the 
power to lift heavy objects, as well as in the force exerted in propel- 
ling vehicles, railroad cars, and machinery. An electrical magnet 
will lift an enormous weight from the ground. Certain nervous 
systems, when separated from the mind, make a draft on this 
vital fund, which either is, or is akin to, the electrical fund : and 
the natural power of the agency is able to overcome gravity and 



326 



IMMORTALITY 



even exert a positive force against such attraction. A medium 
always separates the mind from the nervous system, and is able to 
cause a table to rise from the floor ; usually requiring the assist- 
ance of others whose vitality she may draw from quite readily. 
In some cases, the exhibitions are fraudulent, although done so 
skilfully as to evade detection from novices ; but there are genuine 
instances enough to establish the fact that gravity may be over- 
come by the energy of the nervous system. 

This power is being studied more and more every year. 
Formerly it was customary to say that because a greasy and bad- 
smelling female, with less than ordinary intelligence, was able to- 
cause a table -to rise a few inches from the floor from some un- 
accountable manipulation, it was proof of a spirit world and im- 
mortality. In recent years a little of the essence of ordinary com- 
mon sense has been injected into the beliefs bearing on this subject, 
and no person of judgment sees the work of an invisible spirit in 
such doings. But, says one, it is at least the work of an unseen 
force, and this is equivalent to an unseen spirit. Xot at all. 
Hearing, smelling, tasting, feeling are unseen forces. Thought 
itself is more wonderful than the rise of the table. Even the move- 
ment of curtains, the playing of musical instruments, and sensa- 
tions of touch, carried on by the nervous agency of a medium, 
cannot compare with the flash of a noble thought across the horizon 
of the mind. 

Bear in mind that such force, even when genuine, is al- 
ways dependent upon the medium or some other person. It ap- 
pears to be an independent being, but this is not true ; and is never 
true, no matter how estranged the manifestation may be. It is 
intimately bound up with the organism of the medium, and ceases 
to exist when the conditions of its genesis cease. It is a force in 
the same sense that vitality is a force. In order for us to know 
that we are touched there must be the energy that directs the con- 
tact and the power that gives it life in our own brain. A marble 
statue never knows when it is touched. If man were to invent 
the power of knowing and impart it to the statue, he must estab- 
lish the brain and then add the carrying force of an impression 
reaching from the hand or part touched to the head and its core, 
where the shock called recognition is produced ; which is accom- 
plished by the vitality of the nervous system. This vitality is not 
in the food that is eaten, nor in the chemical constituents of the 



COBWEBS OF BELIEF 



327 



body ; but in nature. It does not originate within, for that would 
be impossible ; yet it does originate within in the same sense that 
electricity originates in the electrical generator, which is, strictly 
speaking, the place where it is gathered, not created. 

No one will contend that the power known as animal vi- 
tality, or human vitality, is created in the body. Being electrical, 
it is developed as electricity is, from the great fund around the 
earth. The best scientists have come to agree that there must be 
a sea of electricity permeating air, gases, liquids and solids, every- 
thing and anything, inside and out ; and from this general fund 
all may be drawn that is required, and yet never exhaust it. 
Enormous machines in a comparatively small building, with win- 
dows and doors tightly closed, may draw out of that fund all that 
a city could use in five hundred thousand lamps, and miles of 
railway employ ; yet not diminish the supply. Of course it is not 
all in the room, but floods in as the demand is made. The fund 
is omnipresent. There are three reasons why the vital fund and 
the electrical fund must be considered as identical in operation : 

1. Electricity and human vitality employ the same systems 
of use ; that is, batteries, conductors and mechanism ; correspond- 
ing to ganglia, nerves and muscles. 

2. Electricity and human vitality are alike in action : what 
can be said of one can be said of the other ; and a book can be 
written on this one subject alone. 

3. Electricity and human vitality are supplied from funds 
that are so inter-related that it can safely be declared that they 
are one and the same, put to varying uses. 

We have seen that intelligence is as necessary to guide 
one as the other. Until the lightning was harnessed for man's 
pleasure, it ran about in a most dangerous fashion. It cannot be 
said that there is any less in the sky now than before ; for it 
escapes after being used and returns to its general fund. Hence 
mechanical electricity as well as human vitality must be guided 
by an intelligence. The peculiarity of the matter is that, when 
the mind is separated from the nervous system the latter may have 
greater force if guided by the remaining intelligence ; or that nat- 
ural sub-conscious mind that is all powerful when it can come to 
the front. It is capable of drawing from the vital fund of others 
and of the general air, and employing this energy in a limited way, 
even up to the line where it passes over to another and deeper 



328 



IMMORTALITY 



faculty. It can produce the smallest details of action by directing 
the vitality to act at its will, as in knocking, whispering, talking, 
writing, and other accomplishments. All this we are certain 
belongs to the function of the nervous system and is not as hard to 
explain as is the problem why that filmy evanescence known as 
gloom, following a piece of bad news, will take material shape and 
stop the digestive machinery of the stomach, as has been proved 
in thousands of cases. A common occurrence is considered as 
natural to matter and explained on physiological grounds ; but an 
uncommon occurrence, such as rapping on a table, is regarded as 
evidence of a spirit world and of immortality, when it is far less 
significant than the instance of bad news referred to above. 

Our claim is this: That the manifestations of spiritual- 
ism are all explainable under material laws ; and that processes 
known to be physical merely are far more mysterious than those 
said to be supernatural. It is the commonest thing for man to 
accept daily wonders as trivial occurrences, and never deem them 
worthy of an attempt at explanation after they are found incapable 
of it ; yet he never tries to prove a spirit's presence by them, but 
always resorts to things less common and less wonderful. The 
whole realm of occult science embraces two great divisions : first, 
a large proportion of fraud, invention and speculation ; second, a 
small area of peculiar operations that are rare enough to excite 
attention, and consequently any degree of credulity required. The 
proof of the soul lies not in that direction. If it did, the prospect 
would be most humiliating. It would leave us only a morbid and 
baneful hope that some clay, in any stage of the future that might 
suit our case, we would float about in the cold air or lurk in damp 
cellars, waiting the beck and call of some ignorant female or some 
cadaverous, long haired man, and thereupon we would leave our 
chiily abode or emerge from our damp cellar, despite the fact that 
our intestinal apparatus was colicky in the extreme, and we would 
proceed to rap on an old table, play some cheap violin, and untie 
the .hands of some confederate in the show business. Yet there 
are minds ; old enough and wise enough to be saturated with 
average sense, that are captured on the crest of wonderment and 
plunged into the full ocean of belief in these ratly exhibitions as 
proofs of that noble essence of God, the immortal soul. Is not this, 
of itself, sufficient proof that the human mind is the acme of im- 
perfection in this defective age ? 



COBWEBS OF BELIEF 



329 



We need another era to complete the plan of creation; and 
that new epoch is the ethical period. In it the defects will disap- 
pear, the imperfections be erased. That upward and onward 
growth which has bettered all the earth and its life as well, since 
it began the ascent out of chaos, is sure to fulfil its destiny. No 
thoughtful person believes that we are perfection in this age ; and 
the acknowledgment is absolute proof that another era is at hand ; 
for the Creator, after expending the grandest efforts of a magnificent 
mind in bringing the earth up to its present standard, will not stop 
short of the goal sought. Perfection is ethical. The next period 
must witness the perfecting of the present. It is therefore to be 
the ethical era. Having brushed away the cobwebs of misappre- 
hensions in this chapter, the next will take us to the truths on which 
are founded the claims of immortality. 




CHAPTER XXVII. 



THE ETHICAL KINGDOM. 



[ & ] 




HE sub-conscious faculty is superhuman. 

This is the 655th Ralston Principle. It represents the 
highest law of earthly life. That there is such a thing as 



sub-consciousness is well known and easily established ; 
but it is not essential to a proof of immortality, any further than 
it indicates the next step in the ascending scale of progress. What 
is often mistaken for the sub-conscious faculty is no more than 
a cob-web of belief attaching itself to a common but not easily 
recognized law. Transference of thought may or may not be of the 
sub-conscious order ; just as a yearning may or may not be of the 
soul ; or a brain impulse may or may not be of the human order. 
If the mind is prone to reasoning we call it human ; if it is prone 
to instinct, we call it brute ; if it is prone to aspirations that uplift 
the heart, we call it divine. If a yearning is for the needs of the 
stomach it is of less rank than a yearning that reaches toward a 
higher plane. So the action of the inner brain may seem akin 
to the immortal faculty, and yet not have the remotest connection 
with it. Yet it is common to speak of the two as one and the same; 
and, for lack of a better term, we may follow that custom. 

In the present volume we refer to the true sub-conscious 
faculty, and it is declared to be superhuman. This statement, 
however, cannot go unchallenged ; at least it must not be accepted 
as true on its face. There are two reasons for believing that such 
a faculty exists : one is found in the fountain source, the other in 
the stream that is rising to meet that source. A thing created may 
not be as great as the creator of the thing ; for the power that pro- 
duces is able to destroy. Even if the king, remaining sovereign, 
places his subject on the throne, the power to remove is still present, 
or the king would not remain sovereign. It might be true that 
God intends to make man His partner in eternity ; but, if such is 
the fact, there is no reason for believing it. Any elevation out of 
our present rank is glory enough. 

(330) 



THE ETHICAL KINGDOM 



331 



The preceding chapters of this book are devoted to the 
production of facts that show in the most decisive manner the 
whole plan of creation as far as humanity is concerned. It is 
sometimes said that the fact that God is a superior being is a sure 
proof of His intention to lift man Heavenward. Such a fact 
proves nothing. We do not choose to believe that there is a God 
unless we can prove it in His works. Holy Scriptures count for 
everything to those who prefer to rest upon faith ; but the fact 
that faith is easily shaken even among the best souls, shows the 
unstable foundation on which it rests. In our opinion the Bible 
does not ask any person to have faith in the existence of God, but 
rather in the leadership of Christ ; two widely different elements 
of belief. It is through the facts of creation, the works of the uni- 
verse, that we find that there is a real God ; and one that is omnis- 
cient and omnipresent. It is through religion that we are called 
upon to place Him at the head of our moral natures and seek 
through His grace to attain a better inheritance. Yet before the 
Bible was written, before man was born, before the brute-savage 
wore the diadem of his degraded authority over the wild life about 
him, before the sea yielded forth its animal types, even while the 
forests were standing, there was a God, and the proof of this fact 
was seen in the works of creation. It is certainly childish to assert 
that we obtain such knowledge only through the Scriptures. 

But the fact that there is a Supreme Being does not of itself 
argue for man's good. The claim that an all- wise power would 
not create man to destroy him, is not logical. It cannot be main- 
tained for a minute. No more can the assertion that if God is all- 
good, He cannot let man perish. It must first be ascertained if 
the Creator is all-good ; and what the term means. If proof of 
His cruelty is to be found in the fact that human beings perish, 
both mortally and eternally, then there is abundance of such evi- 
dence at hand. The Bible is just as frank as nature ; and, by one 
or the other as well, we learn that races have been destroyed ; that 
the Red man was marked for extirmination when Columbus left 
Palos ; that the whole world was doomed for destruction when Noah 
stepped into the ark ; and that the elements, playing about the 
ears of humanity since first the babe lay unsheltered in the moun- 
tains of Asia, have been as merciless as the ice-winds of Manitoba, 
or the oven-breaths of Sahara, 

It is not true that the fact of God's existence proves 



332 



IMMORTALITY 



man's future. It is not true that the millions times millions of 
miserable wretches who come and go like nasty shadows, are to 
revive in a better world ; for the purpose of earthly life would fall 
like a ruined tower. One of two things is true : either this is a 
world of probation, or it is a world of improvement. If it is a 
world of probation, the lecherous toughs and all their progeny of 
vice, who swarm in countless numbers under cover of darkness/ 
are so wasting all opportunities of probation that they are worth- 
less to themselves through all eternity. For them there is no 
probation ; and consequently this is not a world of probation, to 
that extent. The manhood of certain States in this Union is 
saturated with whiskey and cutthroat gambling ; two vices, 
either of which will damn the soul for ever ; and this life is, to 
them, neither probation nor living ; but merely the durance of the 
swine. In high and in low social planes, where sublime faculties, 
born of God, are prostituted to the appetites and slum-pleasures 
of stomach and mind, there is no probation. The very fact that 
the extermination of death ends their worthless careers is proof of 
the mercy of the Creator ; unless imperfect humanity indicates a 
lack of mercy in its lack of completion, which would prevent 
creation, if not permitted. 

As this is not a world of probation, it is a world of im- 
provement. Of this there can be no doubt. Many chapters of 
this volume are devoted to the presentation of the exact nature of 
the improvement, and the purpose that shines through it all. It 
is the steady uplifting of everything great and small ; earth, mat- 
ter, vegetation and animal existence ; all tending one way, never 
backward, never downward, never laterally, but always toward a 
mark of the highest character, up and above the best yet reached. 
This tendency is the fitting counterpart of God's perfection. It is 
true that the fact that there is a Creator is not proof of man's 
immortality ; nor can we estimate anything from that side of the 
argument except that there is a power greater than humanity 
whereto it is possible to go. Several of our earlier chapters have 
been devoted to this one department of investigation. We have 
shown that there is such a power ; and something of the nature of 
it has appeared. 

On a moving train with the termination of the track not 
in sight, the man who says there is no further part of the journey 
yet to be travelled, would be an unsafe counsellor. He would be 



THE ETHICAL KINGDOM 



333 



mentally deficient to a degree not suggested in our black chapter. 
No one would believe him. The race is moving on ; everybody 
admits that. The world is improving ; everybody admits that 
also. The world is taking upward leaps by decisive steps of ad- 
vancement, every one of which is recorded in the annals of the 
earth itself. No person doubts this. It is a known fact. There 
is yet room for improvement ; and no man or woman is quite so 
ingenuous as to pretend to be blind to that fact. Thus we have 
the two conditions necessary to a perfect case : first, a moving 
train ; second, more track ahead. Although, in simple guise, 
these conditions would have been admitted by all who are capable 
of judging them ; yet the many chapters of this volume that 
have been devoted to their proof, have done more than state ele- 
mentary facts ; the nature of the details and the heart of the pur- 
pose have come forth as a language whose import is above the 
possibility of mistake. We are therefore safe in saying that we 
are on a moving train with track ahead. The simile may be more 
exact. Who that has ever ascended Mount Washington when a 
light cloud lay below its top ; and has noticed the steady but slow 
movement of the train that was pushed upward by an engine ; and 
has not felt sure of the fact that the on-going car had a destina- 
tion in spite of the fact that the goal was hidden from view? 
There were three things suggestible : first, the retrogression and 
destruction of the train ; second, its stopping and remaining at its 
height of ascent until a kind of oblivion overcame it ; third, the 
completion of the journey as originally planned. There is but 
one possible conclusion ; the onward moving car with track ahead, 
will stop only at the station of its destiny. Even under a blind 
law, or under the influence of barbaric evolution, such an end is 
the only termination conceivable. But we have a better and more 
lovable rule drawing us to the goal ; the law of special design, by 
which this thing is analyzed and interpreted. 

|" 656 ] 
The sun is unreeling destiny. 

This is the 656th Ralston Principle. It represents a fact as 
well as a purpose in the planning of the system in which we 
dwell, and of which we and the earth are component parts. The 
606th Principle tells us that the nature of the sun's deposits varies 



334 



IMMORTALITY 



with each age of geological history. This proposition at first 
thought arouses a challenge. It is unexpected and therefore the 
scientist will say it is unwarranted. Wise men, those who are 
such in fact and those who are reputed to be such, will declare 
that the sun is one and the same, now and always, in the past 
and in the future. Little by little the thought of the whole mat- 
ter will assume a graver and deeper aspect, and a problem or two 
will arise. The scientist will hesitate in the presence of a large 
doubt, and the difficulties will thicken. Here are some of them. 

1. If the sun is one and the same, now and always, how 
does it happen that its energy is sustained ? 

2. Perhaps its energy is not sustained. 

3. It has great energy at the present time ; but it may have 
had greater in the past. 

4. If its energy is the same now as it was one hundred mill- 
ion years ago, when the globe was nothing but a bald rock shin- 
ing like a hairless pate in this section of the sky, how does it 
happen that its power has been so evenly maintained ? 

5. It has been maintained either by creative supply, or by 
the return action of its own forces. 

6. If there has been a creative supply then additional mate- 
rial has come to the sun in place of what has left it ; and this act 
of special design would be full of significance and hope to man. 
It would decree that the earth is imperishable. 

7. If additional matter, by special supply, has been con- 
stantly coming to the sun to maintain its power in the solar sys- 
tem, then that extra matter may or may not be the same as that 
whose place it takes. 

8. If the energy of the sun is less now than in the past, then 
it is true that the king of orbs is decreasing in quality and prob- 
ably in size. 

9. The sun itself is a yellow orb, and not a white one ; and 
this change of color indicates that it is a waning body, having 
already lost part of its heat, and part of its bulk. 

10. A sun at white heat is more intense, and thus is called a 
" newer " orb. Many of the stars are white. 

11. The only acceptable theory yet proposed concerning the 
maintainance of the sun's heat, even though a losing maintain- 
ance, is that of the great Helmholtz, who finds the explanation in 
a slow contraction of the sun itself, thereby yielding up a part of 



THE ETHICAL KINGDOM 



335 



its sun substance in the fight to keep its heat from fading away 
too rapidly. 

12. A yearly shrinkage of about two or three hundred feet in 
the sun's diameter, is the estimate made by Langley, one of the 
most accurate of astronomers. If this is true, it follows that in 
about eight million years the sun will be completely exhausted. 

13. The sun is of gaseous center and cooling exterior ; so 
that, as its gases are expelled forth into the space about it, they 
lose enough of their heat to become burning or molten solids and 
thus fall as cooler and heavier objects into the seething chaldron 
where they are again turned to gases by the extreme heat. 

14. This is called the boiling of the sun ; through which the 
radiation of light acting upon the atoms of substance are projected 
far enough into space to become a part of the orb-system that re- 
volves about the sun. 

15. The volcanic bursting forth of the sun's matter, rising to 
enormous heights and falling again into the fierce furnance gives 
to the observer the appearance of separate layers of material as the 
outward composition of the great orb. 

16. The sun as ordinarily visible to us, bounded by the 
photosphere, is only a small part of the real sun ; from observa- 
tions made during eclipses it is now known that outside the photo- 
sphere, is an envelope which is mainly composed of hydrogen. 

17. Outside the first envelope is the second, called the corona. 
IS. Outside the corona is a third envelope, mainly along the 

line of the sun's equator; where there is a considerable extension of 
matter, which may or may not be of the same nature as the corona. 

19. These various parts of the solar economy have been ex- 
amined by the spectroscope, which analyzes the light and from its 
lines determines the chemical elements of which it may be com- 
posed. 

20. Owing to a reverse working of the rules of heat and cold, 
the gaseous center of the sun is enormously compressed by the 
falling upon it of the great weight of millions of condensing objects, 
just as the weight of the air around our globe makes it dense near 
the surface and gives it so much pressure that a vacuum would 
possess tremendous power. 

21. With millions of miles of outside pressure upon the gas- 
eous center of the sun, the volume of gas within must have greater 
density than heavy metal in a solid state. 



336 



IMMORTALITY 



22. The great heat of the sun, the outside and lesser part of 
which is estimated to be 400 times the heat of melted iron, pre- 
vents the interior mass from leaving the gaseous state ; and there 
is presented the extraordinary condition of a vapor or gas having 
greater density and weight than cold lead. 

23. This condition must be attended by a never ending series 
of the most violent explosions, which scatter millions of tons out- 
wardly every second ; only to be returned by gravity, and thus 
assist in maintaining that explosive presence. 

24. If the center of the sun, which is nearly a million of miles 
in diameter, is all explosive gas, it would scatter to fragments by 
an outward pressure too great to be checked by returning matter. 

25. It must, therefore, be true that the gaseous condition de- 
creases as the center is approached, so that the mass within would 
exert an attraction of gravitation on all without, and thus hold the 
orb together. 

26. The violence of the sun's boiling is consistent with its 
intensity ; and as one decreases the other must lessen. 

27. The contraction of the sun's diameter is not consistent 
with its cooling, unless there is actual loss of material in space ; to 
explain which we find the growing of the earth as a key to the 
growth of the other planets. 

28. The millions of meteors that are continually coming to 
the earth are sun-atoms sent forth in the form of rays and con- 
densed into particles, then small masses, by their affinity and 
attraction. 

29. The fact is universally admitted that an enormous quan- 
tity of matter has been thus added to the bulk and size of this 
planet. 

30. Other planets must be receiving, in this way, part of the 
sun's substance daily and yearly. 

31. The light which condenses in space may or may not form 
particles and masses and thus return to the sun or become meteors 
in the outer courts of the solar system ; but they certainly carry 
on this process within range of the attraction of the planets. 

32. Allowing for the loss of 250 feet of the sun's diameter 
every year, as reckoned by several of the most trustworthy of the 
great astronomers, and for the gain of the planets in atoms of light 
and meteoric missiles, we find the solar orb to be the source of 
supply of matter as well as vitality on the globe. 



THE ETHICAL KINGDOM 



337 



33. It is well known that there is a fund of matter on this 
earth from which all life proceeds, both in the animal and vege- 
table kingdoms. 

34. When a tree, plant, animal or man grows, the substance 
is taken from the fund of matter ; and, at death, the substance is 
returned to the same fund to be used over and over again. 

35. All matter has come originally from the sun, or from a 
source common to the sun and planets. In addition to various 
means of testimony, it is shown by the spectroscope that there are 
no elements of chemistry in the sun's substance that are not found 
in the earth's substance. 

36. The many thousands of feet of strata added to the surface 
of the earth, as shown by the periods of geology, are due to three 
causes : one is the washing of elevations to the water beds below ; 
another is the accretion of the sun-substance in the form of meteors, 
changed to gases in the atmosphere, and falling to the earth's crust 
in combinations of growth or chemical affinity, aided by atomic- 
supply through the direct rays themselves ; and the third is the 
union of the two causes. 

37. It is plainly evident that the washing of elevations to 
lower places, will build no more than the parts to which such 
washings are carried ; and this would not account for an almost 
universal laying of strata over the entire globe, even to expanses 
now under the seas. 

38. The third cause is doubtless the true one ; namely, accre- 
tion from the sun, and distribution by the aid of moving water ; 
thus showing a magnificent plan in the development of the surface 
for the purposes of sustaining life. 

39. That there are layers of material about the sun may be 
proved in various ways ; but that these differ from each other is 
only an inference. That they do differ in appearance is known : 
and in action also ; but the latter may be the cause of the former. 

40. The changing conditions of the earth's crust may afford 
some aid in determining if the sun is unreeling different natures 
and thus producing the different periods through which the earth 
is passing, and has passed for these many aeons. 

41. That the earth and all its life are dependent upon the sun 
there can be no doubt. Even the coal we burn is but the heat and 
light of that orb, caught a long while ago and imprisoned in the 
strata of the earth, to be exhumed by man in after epochs. 



338 



IMMORTALITY 



42. The fund of matter is not the only fund that gets its sup- 
ply from the sun. The vitality of all life is born of the same 
source. v The tiny flower lifts its petals to the all-glorious giver of 
growth, and drinks in the soul of its existence as a child drinks its 
sustenance from the loving hand of its parent. 

43. Man basks in the sunlight, even when he walks beneath 
the clouds ; for where there is light there the rays have penetrated. 
His food is all from plant life, even though it comes from meat, 
for meat is fed upon vegetation. 

44. Every cell of past growth, from the least to the greatest 
life, has carried in its bosom the direct vitality and guardianship of 
the sun itself. 

45. It[is therefore clearly proved that the earth' s development is 
absolutely inseparable from the sun's influence. They are so in- 
timately associated that they may be called identical in every respect. 

46. The changes that have been wrought in the unfolding of 
the various epochs of the past history of the crust of the earth, 
have been widety different, each from the other ; yet have received 
their sole impulse from the sun, unless the direct hand of the 
Creator has shaped every step through the vital agency of the sun ; 
and in either case the process is the same. 

47. It is either true that all the possibilities of the many future 
changes were entrusted to the earth itself at the start ; or else to 
the sun at the start ; or they have been added since as each epoch 
has been unfolded. 

48. If the earth at the start contained all the powers of its 
future long line of development, it has unfolded them by its in- 
herent energy. 

49. But having no inherent energy except as it is imparted 
by the sun, the conclusion is a sound one that the sun is the cause 
of it all, though acting as a minor cause under the controlling mind 
of the Creator. 

50. Each loss of the sun in the past has been attended by a 
gain on the earth. 

51. Each gain on the earth has shown a marked change of 
purpose and of the influence at work causing that purpose. 

52. If the sun's loss and the earth's gain are attended by 
periodical alterations in the character of the purpose being worked 
out, it is fair to presume that the sun is an orb of layers, each 
being unreeled as the new epoch appears. 



V 



THE ETHICAL KINGDOM 339 

53. If such a conclusion is tenable, the sun holds the secret 
of the next change in the life of this planet and of its inhabitants. 

54. If it is not tenable, it is nevertheless true that the influ- 
ence of the sun must furnish the vitality and the mental power 
that shall prevail in the coming epoch. 

55. The sun gave the earth, one hundred million years ago, 
nothing but rock ; then, as the accretions and washings presented 
a new condition, the sun gave a low order of vegetation, the prim- 
itive nature of which is seen in the limestones of the lowest geo- 
logical period of the crust. 

56. In the opening of time, the sun gave either the fact or the 
impulse of the fact, it matters but little which, of a higher life ; 
and the period of primitive animal existence appeared. It was 
vegetation raised one step in the plan of progress. 

57. As time rolled on, the sun or its impulse gave birth to 
mind ; for the life of the brain is part of the light of the sun. 

58. The next natural change must be in the line of the ten- 
dency of man ; for the reason that man is the highest exponent of 
the divine purpose up to the present time. 

59. As man is superior to the brutes in his mental qualities, 
so that limited division of man which is superior to humanity as a 
whole, must furnish the key to the next natural change. 

60. That limited division of man which shows a superiority 
to the mass and bulk of humanity, is the sub-conscious faculty. 

CZMZ] 

Life, through man, reaches upward to God. 

This is the 657th Ralston Principle. It it the law of immor- 
tality. To understand its full meaning, every preceding page of 
this volume should be carefully read and thoroughly understood. 
Nothing can be omitted. The proposition set forth cannot be 
maintained by a safe demonstration if we start from the present ; 
although there are facts enough in the workings of to-day, and the 
clear hope of a better condition, to warrant a faith as strong as a 
rock that humanity is tending Godwarcl. 

When, however, we go back to all the long story of the 
past and see the strenuous efforts made at every turn of the hand 
of nature to reach toward man, we are able to see in every step of 
the way a definite purpose to attain all that is possible to be 
acquired. It can be said with certainty that fate will not stop 



340 



IMMORTALITY 



short of its fullest prospect. The facts of the past are giants. 
They leave no doubt as to the intention of nature to go as far as it 
can. It is not a question of whether the ascent of life will proceed 
further ; but how far '? We can safely rest in the bosom of abso- 
lute certainty that the earth and its inhabitants will go to the end 
of the track. Thus we stand face to face with these conclusions. 
First, we are on the moving train, and we cannot see the end of 
the track ; therefore there is progress ahead. Second, wherever 
and whatever may be the end of the journey, some portion of 
existence is sure to reach it. Third, special design is at work 
uplifting man. Fourth, special design is the sure indication of a 
Supreme Mind directing this uplifting process. Fifth, such Su- 
preme Being is able to carry this process to its end. Sixth, the 
power that has exhibited the wonderful workmanship in all the 
succession of steps thus far taken in the millions of years that have 
elapsed, through which there has shone a sublime purpose stretch- 
ing onward to a fulfilment of the loftiest conception, will not end 
this progress with so imperfect a being as present man. Seventh, 
the goal to be reached is a state of perfection, in earth and in its 
life. To this we will recur a few pages hence. 

[ -658— ] 

The outward layer of the sun was matter. 

This is the 658th Ralston Principle. It represents one of the 
facts in the composition of destiny as shown in that of the sun. 
We might leave the subject at this place, and simply say that the 
proposition is probably a true one ; but that there is no other 
proof of it than the condition of the earth previous to the time of 
the life-epochs. By the latter term we mean the periods when 
vegetation and animal life began their successive growths. It 
would not be fair to our readers to drop the matter with this doubt 
hanging over it. As far as we can judge it, there seems to be a 
certainty in the principle stated. Yet we admit that scientists 
have not taken that view of the formation of the earth. They be- 
lieve that the crust is the same now as always ; although it is not 
the same in fact ; but they account for vegetation and animal de- 
velopment on the theory that they have evolved. The difficulty 
of such theory is manifold ; while the principle of sun-supply is 
simple and direct, and coincides at once with the elevation of all 
creation in this planet and the clearly expressed purpose of God 



THE ETHICAL KINGDOM 



341 



to produce the results now in sight. Evolution, in its real nature, 
must be something out of something ; but the material to be em- 
ployed cannot create itself, the impulse to act cannot be evolved, 
and the goal to be reached can neither be an accident nor an in- 
vention. Thus, at its very best, evolution is merely an agency. 
It is the fire that changes the dough to bread ; and herein we have 
an exact illustration of the laiv of evolution as stated by Darwin 
and others. The fire is evolved from combustibles, it heats the 
dough, and bread is the result. Fire is an agency. It is the im- 
pulse of that evolution ; but it did not create the fire, the match, 
the fuel, the dough, the oven, the cook ; it did, however, evolve 
the bread.. The loaf may revere and worship the fire. In such a 
sense man may be said to be evolved ; but evolution did not create 
the earth, the rock, the sand, the vegetation, the air, the flesh, 
the cell, the light, the warmth, the Creator, nor itself ; and yet 
all these are necessary to the processes of evolution. We can then 
see how little and useless it is when left to its own conceit. 

If any single or combined agency can produce man, 
mind, soul, nerves, muscles, body and all, from a rock, then that 
agency is a Creator, a divine and Supreme Being ; and that is all 
that God is. If evolution can do it, then evolution is God, and 
we are His. Whether Darwin is correct or not, it does not matter, 
for his theory only confirms the existence and omnipotence of 
God. What we say is this, that evolution of itself cannot create 
anything. It may act as the changing agent, but never as the 
supplying agent. It may have made the way easy for the steps of 
progress to have passed from one to the other ; but it never could 
have supplied mind to a tree, nor the reasoning faculty to a fish. 
Let us see what the scientists do admit ; then it will be easier to 
locate the area of doubt. In the first place, they agree one and 
all that the sun has been the necessary attendant of the earth in 
all its growth ; they agree that no life, mental, electrical, physical, 
vegetable or chemical can exist without the direct and even per- 
sistent aid of the sun. They admit that the present chemical ele- 
ments of the earth and of the sun are the same in kind and in 
character ; thus showing a concurrent relationship between the 
parent orb and its child-planet. They also admit that the earth, 
holding just as close a relationship one hundred million years ago 
as it holds to-day, was a rock globe, bald and devoid even of 
vegetation. With these admissions, we find ourselves face to face 



342 



IMMORTALITY 



with the alternative of believing that the life was present, but 
dormant, at that time ; and that it took nearly fifty million years 
for it to wake into action ; or else, of believing that it had not yet 
been imparted to this planet. The latter is the only true theory. 
When we consider that the sun is contracting at the rate of 
two hundred and fifty feet per year, and that it will be exhausted 
in about eight million years more, we cannot readily believe that 
man came on earth in the form of matter one hundred million 
years ago, and has been dormant until within a few thousand 
years. The claim is unreasonable ; therefore we consider it 
proved, as nearly as proof is possible, that the interior of this 
earth was built of the outward layer of the sun. 

[Z^Z] 

The second layer of the sun contained the impulses 
of the vegetable kingdom. 

This is the 659th Ralston Principle, and carries the second 
of a series of five laws relating to the unreeling of the sun's forces. 
The proposition is neither denied nor admitted by scientists because 
their attention has never been called to this line of action. It is, 
however, possible to so state it as to compel acquiescence in its 
truth ; for instance, if we should re- word the matter thus : The de- 
velopment and growth of the vegetable kingdom was directly im- 
pelled by the sun ; no doubt could be raised as to the truth of it. 
The only question is, whether the sun emits the same impulse age 
after age, or changes and the earth changes with it. That the 
earth has changed is true ; but are those advances due to the earth, 
or due to the great parent orb that feeds the earth with all its 
vitality ? It would seem reasonable to suppose that growth here 
would respond to the influence of the cause of growth. It does 
not seem scientific to believe that, if the sun's impulses were the 
same at the beginning as now, so long a lapse as fifty million years 
would have been necessary for bringing even the lowest life into 
being. A few thousand years would have been sufficient. 

f 660 1 

The third layer of the sun contained the impulses of 
the animal kingdom. 

This is the 660th Ralston Principle. If we were to state it 



THE ETHICAL KINGDOM 



343 



thus : The development and growth of the animal kingdom was 
directly impelled by the sun ; the proposition would have the ready 
acquiescence of all persons familiar with this branch of science. 
No one disputes the fact that the solar orb is the controlling master 
of this system or group of planets ; nor is it in dispute that all 
animal life obtains its vitality from the sun. As we were once a 
part of that king, and as this earth enters into the composition of 
our bodies, so is it true that we are of the same substance as the 
sun ; the only question being as to whether it was all rolled out 
as a mass at one time and left to develop itself, or whether it has 
been sent. to this orb as needed and as used. In either case, it is 
undeniable that the impulses of growth have been successive ; and 
herein our principle is fully sustained. 

[ ~66T~ ] 

The fourth layer of the sun contains the impulses of 
the mental kingdom. 

This is the 661st Ralston Principle. It represents the present 
regime under which the earth is moving. It seems that the men- 
tal and the electrical are closely intertwined in their relationship ; 
and from this it may be assumed that we are living in the electric- 
period of the sun. It is very likely that lightning was unknown 
in previous epochs ; or, certainly, previous to the advent of the 
warm-blooded animals. No evidence of the havoc of lightning 
can be found in the purely vegetable era ; and it seems impossible 
for the cleaving of trees to have occurred then as now without 
leaving some trace of it in the strata. Mind has dwelt on earth 
for many thousands of years ; long before the Caucasian era ; but 
it never appeared until the erect biped was brought into being. 
The brute-savage had mind ; so did the barbarian. The yellow 
Mongol, the red Indian, the brown Malay and the black Negro, 
were all on earth and thriving at the height of their supremacy 
long before the white Caucasian appeared. In that gradation of 
change which accompanies even the most decisive steps, the mind 
of to-day had its heralding in the mind of the barbarian and the 
savage ; so that the influences coming from the sun have been 
ripening in this, the period of mental supremacy. But it is a de- 
fective era, for mind is not a perfect form of life. It is man, lacking 
the ideal. It is the angel, lacking completion. 



344 



IMMORTALITY 



[_662_] 

The fifth stage of the sun's disclosure will unfold 
the ethical kingdom. 

This is the 662d Ralston Principle, and bears upon its mission 
the truth of the new epoch. We use the term ethical as meaning 
perfect, in the sense of honest. That which is imperfect lacks in- 
tegrity, and integrity means completeness, as integral means whole. 
Before we should prove the principle, the fact of a new and ethical 
era should be established. This we promise to do in this chapter. 
For the present, let it be assumed that there is to be such a new 
period, and that it is to be of an ethical or honest character. Start- 
ing, then, with the assumption, we must find a major cause and 
a minor cause of the change. The former is God. The latter we 
propose to prove is the sun. 

In the first place it is acknowledged that man, the 
earth and the sun, were once all one mass, mixed and intermixed 
together. How they have separated is not of so much consequence 
as the fact that they have separated. That is true, no matter what 
theory we accept. The nebular hypothesis conveys the same les- 
son and tells the same story ; but its serious objections compel us 
to reject it. By its relation of events, the whole solar system was 
a gaseous vapor which was intensely heated ; the condensing of 
which caused the sun to form as a molten mass, or gaseous globe, 
and throw off the planets. The fact that the sun is now in part a 
gaseous vapor of great density, denies the nebular theory ; and it 
is opposed by the other fact that the sun is losing its bulk while 
the planets are gaining. Nor could it be true that the orbs that 
receive their life from the sun are co-equals with it. The latter 
has always been a giver of matter and vital impulses ; the former 
have always been recipients. The only true theory is that which 
accords the sun as the giver from the start ; the first and only orb 
of the system, from whose rays the atoms of matter have been col- 
lected in space and resolved to planets. Here are the two opposing 
theories of science ; but, strange, to say, no matter which is 
accepted, man is acknowledged to be part and portion of the 
mass from which the sun and earth are made. Our bodies are a 
part, then, of the sun. Our vitalities, our minds, our everything, 
are taken from the sun's mass. It is not unreasonable to ascribe 
to that orb the parentage of all w T e are and all we hope to attain 
from what we are. There has never yet been one fact adduced to 



THE ETHICAL KINGDOM 



345 



show that an} 7 other influence than that of the sun has played 
any part in our production, sustenance or prospective destiny. 

We have agreed to admit for the sake of the present posi- 
tion of our argument, that there is to be an ethical era, leaving the 
proof of that to subsequent pages. Those who follow the faith of 
their religion defer the time to the hereafter ; and the place to 
Heaven ; so do we. They do not know where Heaven is ; neither 
do we. Probably God does not know it by that name. If, bow- 
ever, there is a Heaven, it must be somewhere. If it is somewhere, 
there is no reason for its being away from God's handiwork. If it 
is in the realm of His handiwork, it may as well be on earth, or 
in the sun, as in some other planet and some other sun. If any 
person thinks that our own sun was made to furnish heat and 
material for this earth, and then cease to do so at that time when 
imperfection stands at the threshold of perfection, he is mistaken. 
The pail of rich milk may be overturned by the kick of a vicious 
cow, and its contents lost just as they are complete ; but the only 
kicker in the solar system is the power or personality that is called 
the devil, and God is fully able to cope with him. So it may be 
asserted as a fact that our own solar system is to work out the 
glorious end of its destiny. 

All we are seeking to maintain at this juncture is the 
intention of the sun-family to go on to the goal. The best proof 
of the future is the past, especially if that past has enacted an 
ascent and kept consistently to its purpose. Here are rising planes 
of progress : 

1. The earth has steadily improved in its condition through 
successive steps of ascent, 

2. Life on the earth has steadily improved in its condition 
through successive steps of ascent. 

3. The human species has steadily improved in its condition 
through successive steps of ascent, 

4. The sun's influence has steadily grown more ameliorating 
and suited to the ascent of the earth, of life and of man. 

5. The sun has, therefore, shown itself to be an orb of evolu- 
tion, in the sense that it has proved itself to be both progressive 
and improving, although undoing itself. 

We have said that the past is the best proof of the future; 
take, then, these ascending planes of advance, and see what they 
indicate. At first glance we see the harmony of sun and earth 



I 



346 IMMORTALITY 

working together ; for as the earth reached upward toward vegeta- 
tion the sun adapted itself to the effort. It was a hotter orb than 
it now is. Until its heat was lessened no planet could live. The 
diminution of that intensity at once showed the purpose of the 
sun to change in order to assist the development of the earth. 
But, it may be claimed, the latter blossomed into life because the 
sun's heat was lessened, not because the sun intended to aid the 
earth. This argument will not do. There was special design in 
both ; and the sun permitted the earth to develop its life by de- 
creasing its own heat and, at the same time, supplying the very 
energy and vitality that made all life possible. So the sun's 
change was a part of the scheme and was operated under the law 
of special design. This planet was the waiting field ; and bent 
its every turn toward the purpose which lay in the chambers of 
the solar palace. 

Things are not made for nothing. There is not a useless 
atom in the whole amphitheatre of the sky. The moon is not an 
idle orb. The sun itself, wearying with an endless round of cycles, 
will finally be uncovered ; and the time is not far distant when we 
consider the enormous lapse of ages in comparison with the years 
that remain. Eight millions are many to us and few to eternity. 
They will go as easily as a summer breeze that floats above the 
treetops and idly drifts to its home of rest. When the fire circles 
that blaze around the sun have died down to the red glow of death, 
that mighty orb will yet serve the purpose for which it was created. 
In the meantime the race, now six thousand years old, will be 
modified under speedier changes. 

[ —663— ] 
Each advancing period is shorter. 

This is the 663d Ralston Principle. It represents a law ex- 
emplified in a fact. There is some reason for believing that each 
new period is of about half the length of its predecessor ; but this 
is only approximately true. Thus the first geological era is sup- 
posed to be about fifty million years in length. It may have been 
much more or much less, though the latter is regarded as quite 
improbable. Geologists say, in a general way, that the first period 
is equal to all the others put together ; and that the second is equal 
to all its successors put together. This would make the second 
about twenty-five million years in duration ; the next about twelve 



THE ETHICAL KINGDOM 



347 



million ; the fourth about six million ; the fifth about three mill- 
ion ; the sixth about one million ; and so on. This gradation of 
change is not sustained by geological information ; but there seems 
to be a tendency to shorten more than half. 

For convenience's sake take the duration of the first 
period as sixty millions of years ; that of the second as twenty 
millions ; that of the third as six millions ; that of the fourth as 
one million ; that of the fifth as one hundred thousand ; that of 
the sixth as ten thousand ; and that of the seventh as unknown ; 
we come closer to geological fact, and having a steadily decreasing 
shrinkage. We are now in the sixth period under this plan, which 
is merely one of convenience ; and the fourth under the unreeling 
stages of the sun. The lack of agreement between the two is due 
to the fact that we made the sun-periods include two others of the 
geological. Thus the first rock epoch of each corresponded in 
duration of time ; next the vegetable ; then the third or animal 
period of the sun included the invertebrata, the vertebrata and 
mammals of geology ; and the mental sun- era is the now present 
psychozoic of geological reckoning. This is a proper arrangement ; 
as the animal kingdom has proceeded through each of the stages 
named. The invertebrata are the lowest ; the mammals the 
highest ; and mind the highest of the mammals. Each, of course, 
has its divisions. 



TABLE OF ADVANCING STEPS. 



SUN-PERIODS. 


EARTH-PERIODS. 


5. PEKFECT. 


7. PEEFECT. 


4. MIND. 


6. MIND. 


3. ANIMAL. 


5. MAMMALS. 

4. VERTEBRATES. 

3. INVERTEBRATES. 


2. VEGETABLE. 


2. VEGETABLE. 


1. KOCK. 


1. ROCK. 



348 



IMMORTALITY 



The invertebrates include seven of the eight divisions of 
the animal kingdom. The eighth is that of the vertebrates. The 
vertebrates include mammals ; mammals include humanity ; hu- 
manity includes the brute-savage race that preceded the yellow, 
red, brown and black races, all known as barbarians ; and ah the 
pinnacle of creation as far as it has proceeded, the white x-ace of 
our era. As this is the only division of humanity of which it can 
be truly said that mind is master, it is properly called the psycho- 
zoic man. In the accompanying tables the eye catches the mean- 



TABLE OF THE ASCENT OF LIFE. 


Duration of time. 




Order of Ascent. 


Unknown. 


ETHICAL AGE. 

7 


PERFECT. 


MIND AGE. 

Possibly ten thousand years. | 

6 


WHITE EACE. 


About 
one hundred thousand 
years. 


BARBARIANS 
AND 
SAVAGES. 

5 


YELLOW RACE. 

BROWN RACE. 
RED RACE. 

BLACK RACE. 
BRUTE-SAVAGE 

AND 

MAMMALS 

BELOW HUMANITY. 


1,000,000 years. 


4 


VERTEBRATES. 

BELOW MAMMALS. 


6,000,000 years. 


3 


INVERTEBRATES. 


20,000,000 years. 


2 


VEGETATION. 


60,000,000 years. 


1 


ROCK. 



THE ETHICAL KINGDOM 



349 



ing involved in this uplifting of creation. It must be noted that 
the name of each advance is applied to the period that introduces 
its prevailing kind of life. Thus, in the rock period, we find the 
prevailing character of the age to have been rock ; yet, because 
rock is not mentioned in the higher periods, it must not be 
thought that there was none after the first epoch. So, in the sec- 
ond, vegetation was the predominant character of the period, hav- 
ing been introduced in abundance and prevailing throughout ; 
yet, after vegetation came on earth, it remained through all the 
ages that followed. Next came the invertebrates and others. 

The higher the race the more limited in numbers 
it becomes. 

This is the 664th Ralston Principle. It is a fact of value and 
should be studied carefully in order to be duly appreciated. We 
may commence, if we please, at the lowest life of all ; even below 
the animal kingdom. This is vegetation. It outnumbers all the 
members of the animal kingdom more than one hundred to one. 
In the under rank of animal life, we find the invertebrates. There 
are eight divisions in the animal kingdom, yet seven of these are 
invertebrates. Coming up the scale we find that mammals are 
comparatively a small part of all vertebrates ; there being four in 
all : fishes, amphibia, birds and mammals. We may, therefore, 
say that the last named, or highest, are one-fourth in classifica- 
tion, although much less in actual numbers. This dwindling is 
significant. Of all mammals, humanity is but a small part ; be- 
ing one of fourteen divisions according to some scientists ; and one 
of 150 families according to another system ; and one of over 
three thousand species of mammalia. Of all humanity, the Cau- 
casians are in a small minority, having less than one-fourth the 
numbers of the yellow race alone. The true, unmixed whites of 
to-day are even less ; and we have shown that their descendants 
die out in a few generations. Hence the tapering goes on. If the 
future is proved by the past it is certain that the white race will 
not all prove qualified for the ethical period. 



350 



IMMORTALITY 

| ^ETHICAL. 
6 4-« MENTAL. 



MAMMALS. 



4 

VEKTEBEATES. 



3 

INVERTEBRATES. 



2 

VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 



TABLE OF COMPARATIVE NUMBERS, OR BULK OF LIFE IN THE 
VAKIOUS PERIODS. 



THE ETHICAL KINGDOM 



351 



Why this decrease of bulk is ordained is difficult to see 
except in the lower scale of life. It is right that vegetation should 
outrank in number and extent all the animal kingdom ; and it may 
be a wise provision that the invertebrates should outnumber all the 
rest of the animalia, seven to one ; but even here it would seem 
that the noblest species and the noblest type should overwhelm all 
else. There is some reason for it, that is not easily recognized. 
It may be that the reduction is to go on beyond the next or seventh 
step ; but we are satisfied that creation ought to reach perfection 
then in its chosen class. Of course, it is not to be assumed that 
perfection is a term applicable to all life ; for it is plainly evident 
that a limited class only are moving upward. 

If the tapering goes on at the rate already seen, there will 
be about three per cent, of the white race pass into the ethical era ; 
providing that is the final period. Yet, suppose there are further 
epochs to follow, with the reduction in numbers still going on ; 
the result must be a race of gods ; and it would bring existence up 
to a single being, if the process did not cease. Is it possible that 
God Himself is in the better part of mankind, working up and 
out, intending finally to emerge as the great goal of all this crea- 
tion ? Such must be the destiny of life if there is not a limit 
somewhere in the steps to be taken, and the tapering of the exist- 
ence that will occupy them. It is simply stating the sublime 
proposition that God is creating Himself. The thought is great 
enough, but not warranted unless we conceive an almost endless 
succession of periods in the future. If creation is purposeless, 
there is nothing to argue and nothing to live or die for. If it has 
a purpose then that design should be discovered by the rules of 
reason rather than sentiment ; and the only conclusion that can be 
reached by the rules of reason is that the uplifting of life is intended 
to place some race, either this or another, on the plane of perfec- 
tion, after which the journey of progress must end. 

[ZMZ] 

The ethical kingdom is heralded in man. 

This is the 665th Kalston Principle. It recites a law that has 
been struggling to come to the front for the last six thousand 
years, or during the time of man's existence in Caucasian suprem- 
acy. No exact time can be fixed. While all reliable evidence 
points to sixty centuries as the probable length thus far of this 



352 



IMMORTAL1T Y 



mental era, it may be a thousand or more years longer. It cannot 
possibly exceed ten thousand years. For convenience we say six 
thousand. In our table of the Ascent of Life, in this chapter, 
we place the time as probably ten thousand years ; and this is 
prospective as well as retrospective ; yet that time may be but six 
or seven thousand years. There is no way of telling unless one is 
an Adventist, in which case any date that suits the requirements 
of the soothsayer may be figured out to perfection. 

During the past six thousand years there has been brew- 
ing in the nature of man the heralding spirit of the next era. 
This is seen chiefly in the workings of the sub-conscious faculty, 
mentioned in the beginning of this chapter. That which is truly 
sub-conscious is mental evidence of the soul. By the word soul 
we mean that which stands for the future life, if there is one. 
The real soul is not present in this body, except in embryo ; but 
its herald is a part of our present existence. The immortal part 
of us must be born after the body dies, yet such birth is but a 
metamorphosis based upon its embryo in this life. There are 
certain proofs of these propositions that may be advanced at this 
time. 

With an ever ascending plane of existence and an ever 
ascending plane of conditions ripening to receive it, we naturally 
look inward to see if there is anything in the nature of human life 
prepared or preparing to meet the next step. If so, then creation 
is working in harmony through all its details. If there is nothing 
in man that is fit to meet the higher life ahead, then there is no 
other source to which we may look, and the whole planetary pur- 
pose is a failure, dismal and wretched. As God does not fail, and 
cannot fail, it is impossible to assume that there is nothing in 
man, the highest and the only high grade of life 3 that is preparing 
to meet the new conditions. The question remains, therefore, 
what is that which is struggling Godward in humanity ? 

The answer to the question just asked is found in the 
evidences of the sub-conscious faculty which is present in certain 
persons. As each ascending rank in the scale of civilization has 
diminished in numbers or bulk ; so we may expect to find the 
evidences of a still higher life limited likewise, and in a small 
minority only among even the Caucasians. Man, and under the 
term man woman is always included, is a composite being carry- 
ing in his make-up all the divisions of existence. He is vegetable 



THE ETHICAL KINGDOM 



353 



in that, apart from his mind, the functions of the vegetable king- 
dom are carried on without his direction. These are digestion, 
circulation and respiration ; all belonging alike to plant and ani- 
mal ; and never absent in any species of either. Man is physical 
in that, apart from his thinking mind, the functions of the lower 
brutes are carried on under the control of the cerebellum or auto- 
matic muscular brain. He is mineral or rock in his bones, hair, 
teeth, nails, and pigment or coloring matter. He is human in that 
he thinks, reflects, reasons, feels, and enjoys life. In these respects 
he is unapproachable by any of the lesser animals. The only sem- 
blance to pleasure in the latter is seen in their play ; but this is 
indulged in, under their instincts, for the purpose of developing 
their muscles for future help in getting food. He is out-played, 
out-run and out-worked by animals below him ; because playing, 
running aud working are more physical than mental. In depart- 
ing from the physical, he ascends through the mind toward the 
ethical. 

It is perfectly proper to speak of the embryo of immor- 
tality as the soul, even before death. So we continually hear it 
said that man has a body, a mind, and a soul. There is no other 
term to use. To condense it into soul- embryo would be no im- 
provement, even though it be the fact. A noted physician de- 
clares that there is no soul, for there is no evidence of any life 
except that which is expressed through consciousness. He cites 
the case of a man asleep, or one stunned by a blow. Here is a 
body so helpless that it cannot save itself. If there is a soul, why 
does it not protect the body at that time when it most needs pro- 
tection ? A strong man asleep in a burning room may easily escape, 
if his soul will wake him up in time to be warned of the fire ; 
but no, the body locked in the embrace of weariness sleeps on and 
is destroyed. Yet the only part of him that was asleep was the 
mind or brain, through the demand of nature for rest. The me- 
dulla did not sleep, for the functions of breathing, circulation and 
digestion are all active. Why did that soul allow him to perish ? 
Was it asleep too ? Why should it rest, unless it was wearied with 
the mind ? But it had no work to do, and its need of quietude is 
not of the same character as that of the mind. If the soul is co- 
extensive with the mind, then it is that and no more. Any argu- 
ment that can be produced that tends to establish in the life of a 
man a full fledged separate entity, or a complete spirit life, or a 



354 



IMMORTALIT Y 



being already endowed with the functions of existence, is an argu- 
ment in favor of mortality for all, with no hope of future existence. 
You must select one of two theories : either that immortality of 
our present life is attained through the birth of a soul after death, 
in which case there is no soul now ; or else, if there is a soul in 
this life, it is dependent upon this life and ends with it. The ease 
with which death comes in sleep from dangers that could be easily 
averted if a soul were present to awaken the sleeper, is absolutely 
positive proof that what soul there is, is completely subservient to 
the body ; and this is all we claim. It is not that being which is 
ready for an endless existence. 

f 666 1 

The soul-embryo is the highest expression of human 

life. 

This is the 666th Ralston Principle. It represents that plane 
of earthly creation which is the ultimate attainment in this world. 
It is the dividing line between immortality and nothing ; for if it 
is not true, then we all go down to death, to join the several funds, 
from which some other individuals will emerge with our composi- 
tion rearranged in other forms; so that, if we live again, we shall 
not know it. Here are the propositions : 

1. It is certain that a new period will dawn ere long upon 
this earth. 

2. It is certain that a perfect race will, in that new period, 
occupy this earth. 

3. That perfect race will either come out of this by evolution, 
or will be made up from a portion of this, by metamorphosis. 

4. If the perfect race is to be evolved, then all who die are 
restored to the funds of matter, vitality and intelligence, to remix 
and be lost in their identity ; in which case to live again'is to live 
without knowledge of having previously existed. 

5. There are many who believe in this mode of restoration ; 
although it does not explain how any one individual may attain 
immortality. 

6. It means annihilation for the present body, mind and 
soul ; and for that reason it shocks the whole fabric of hope. 

7. The metamorphosis of the embryo into an immortal being 
is the only process whereby eternal existence is possible. 

These thoughts may not sink deep enough into the 



THE ETHICAL KINGDOM 



355 



nature of the reader who skims off the surface of the problem and 
attempts to absorb it as the whole matter. If there is time to re- 
think on these propositions, and to examine them in the light of 
the best claims that may be advanced for the solution of the greatest 
of all questions, it will soon be seen that there is no other outcome. 
An immortal soul, grand and sublime as that which we are told is 
lodged in our body, is a very weak and stupid piece of existence, 
if it is with us now. It is of no use to the body, for a horse has 
more sense in eating and drinking than we have. It is of no use 
morally, for the lowest brutes have never committed the sins and 
cruelties that the human race has been guilty of. There is no 
higher expression in human life than the soul- embryo ; and it is 
as helpless as the child-embryo in the womb of its parent. On no 
other ground, and by no other reasoning, can we account for the 
degradation and deviltry of humanity. The 666th Ralston Prin- 
ciple is, therefore, the most merciful of all our laws. 

A new period, a perfect race, and an ethical king- 
dom are the three prospects for our fallen hopes : and no brighter 
inheritance can be offered to any child of earth. Let us look at 
this trinity, and see what it means : 
A New Period 

is coming in the next advance of the earth's condition. 
A Perfect Race 

is coming in the next advance of humanity. 
Ax Ethical Kingdom 

will take the place of human government ; and this 

kingdom is already heralded in man. 

[ZMZ] 

The existence of the soul-embryo is discoverable. 

This is the 667th Ralston Principle^ and represents a law in 
which is embodied man's opportunity. While more will be said 
on the subject in a subsequent chapter, it is important to look at 
some of the proofs in this. There are many small tests of the ex- 
istence of the soul-embryo ; and a few great ones. In the first 
place, we must not look to spirits for proof. A spirit, properly 
speaking, is the physical vitality of the body, and may be trans- 
ferred by a thought, in the method already suggested. When we 
see a ghost we see this physical vitality through a mental picture. 
The most absurd claim ever advanced is that which asserts this 



356 



IMMORTALITY 



film of the mind to be an evidence of the soul. In the second 
place, we must not look to physical forces for proof. The so-called 
occult rapping, sounding, touching are offshoots of the force of 
the nervous system, and find lodgment in the brain, where only 
can touch or sound be recognized. In the third place, we must 
not look to our fears or our hopes for proof ; for these are attri- 
butes of the lowest animal and highest mental natures. 

Soft sentiments are sometimes mistaken for the expres- 
sion of the soul. "When we part from a friend, say in the death- 
chamber, we weep bitterly. The loss seems irreparable. Clouds 
hang over the home and all the land like a pall so dense that it 
seems as if it can never lift. This is human and it may be animal ; 
for there are many species of the brute creation that suffer at part- 
ing. The bird grieves for the loss of its mate ; the dog is capable 
of suiciding upon the grave of its master ; and through many of 
the species there is the same evidence of human sorrow that we 
see in our own race. But when better days come, the friend is 
forgotten, except as a duty, and there is nothing more than the 
human in the sorrow expressed. 

We must look deeper. The friend is clearer to us than 
life. Death comes. Memory will not down. Day follows day, 
until they flow into years, but respect gives way to love, and love 
to cherishing ; for, through storm and sunshine, the grave is never 
neglected ; through success and its smiles, through the hurrying 
of life and the weariness of its turmoil, there is time to be found 
for living over again the happy days when parting had not sev- 
ered the tie of affection. Herein sorrow is the cloud on which is 
stamped the rainbow of the soul. A wife dies in the arms of her 
husband. To him she is the ideal of the universe. When the 
lids are closed, the form arranged, and the early preparations for 
laying out are completed, he does not tip-toe out of the room to 
mourn in decency in another part of the house ; he even shows 
more affection than the dog who refuses to leave the body of his 
dead master ; he will not part company with that cooling corpse 
because he believes the soul has gone, and all that remains is cold 
clay ; he lingers there because the cord of love, held steadfast 
through a life of mutual worship, is still strong in the shadows of 
life's night. Sordid fear does not drive him away when the half- 
dark room is palled in the spirit- visiting hours ; nor does the 
touch of the cold flesh, stiffened in the rigors of death, cause him 



THE ETHICAL KINGDOM 



357 



to shrink in horror. It is still his wife. He finds time to visit 
her grave, to invite the sad flowers to grow there, to protect it 
from the ravages of time and weather. On the wall of his home, 
her picture faces him daily ; in the locket or watch-case, the same 
features that bore him sympathy in life are gazing at him in the 
hours of labor or business. On special clays he garlands her por- 
trait in flowers ; and the anniversary is as holy to him as the ten- 
derest memories of love can make them. Despite his family 
cares, his growing children and their need of woman's nurture, he 
has no thought of marrying another. His passion, his nature, 
his convenience, are ail curbed beneath the heel of a manhood 
that soars far above the animal and mental division of his body. 
The man who loves his wife and who marries another is soulless. 
The woman who loves her husband and who marries another is 
without that faculty which denotes the divine in human nature. 
There are many such in the world. One who has married out of 
love, ow^es a duty to self and to God to undo the alliance and find 
the true counterpart of the soul. Wedded life, maintained in 
happiness, is typical of God's union with humanity. 

There are evidences of soul-embryo in the higher 
sorrow that follows the death of a child. The animal grieves, 
sometimes piteously, for the loss of its young ; but memory is 
short in such cases. The human mother becomes frantic when 
her babe is covered by the sod ; and each shovelful that falls over 
its body is like wrenching the strings from out her heart ; yet 
time mellows the grief and the fact that she once had a little child 
that died is substantiated by reference to old records. This is 
animal and mental love, but the soul-embryo is not visible in the 
wild demonstrations of suffering. The man who wrote the little 
poem which we incorporate in this chapter, was of that higher 
type of life that indicates the possession of the soul-germ : and 
those who are touched by the ethical power that is hidden in these 
lines of Eugene Field, must be of the same type also. 

The little dog is covered with dust, 

But sturdy and staunch he stands ; 
And the little toy soldier is red with rust, 

And his musket molds in his hands. 
Time was when the little toy dog was new, 

And the soldier was passing fair, 
And that was the time when our Little Boy Blue 

Kissed them and put them there. 



358 



IMMORTALITY 



"Now don't you go till I come," lie said, 

" And don't you make any noise !" 
So, toddling off to his trundle bed, 

He dreamt of the pretty toys ; 
And, as he was dreaming, an angel-song 

Awakened our Little Boy Blue — 
Oh, the years are many, the years are long, 

But the little toy friends are true. 

Ay, faithful to Little Boy Blue they stand, 

Each in the same old place, 
Awaiting the touch of a little hand, 

The smile of a little face. 
And they wonder, as waiting these long years through, 

In the dust of that little chair, 
What has become of our Little Boy Blue 

Since he kissed them and put them there. 

There is soul in the poem, but it cannot be discovered ; 
it must be felt. To him or her who has the soul-embryo, the 
reading of these lines aloud in the loneliness of retirement, will 
open the portals of the ethical kingdom, and the whole nature will 
be outlifted from earth, as this soul-part of humanity seems to 
speak. No surer test is needed than this simple but sincere poem. 
Another means of making the discovery is in the real character of 
the heart as to honesty or dishonesty. Policy, education and 
training make most people honest in the ordinary details of life ; 
but there is an inherent integrity that cannot apply to this psycho- 
zoic period, for it is the era of imperfection, and integrity means 
perfection ; and both mean completion. The next is to be the 
age of completion, and consequently of perfection and integrity. 
There are, however, in the human family many men and women 
who are neither dishonest nor stupid. They can tell no lie, for it 
is to them a meanness to state that which is not so. If a false- 
hood were possible in the universe, the machinery would fall 
apart, and chaos result. A fact is a thing, an existence. To 
think, or act, or declare to the contrary is a denial of the thing, 
the creation, the Creator. Let honesty once control the human 
heart, and religion would lay its jewels at the feet of God, re- 
turned for lack of employment. Rising above the towering cita- 
dels of the noblest creed, above and far away from the codes of 
government, the restraints of law, or the dictates of conscience, 
is that sublimest ideal of immaculate whiteness, the honest man. 



THE ETHICAL KINGDOM 



359 



He is in touch with all creation, for he and they can ntter no lie. 
He is conspicuously in the minority on earth to-day ; but he ex- 
ists, and holds in his hand the scroll of his immortal inheritance. 
Honest men and honest women are the only beings who are in 
touch with God. 

We might enumerate other evidences of this germ of the 
new kingdom, but other pages will be devoted to their considera- 
tion. In the aspirations of poetry ; in the clean and pure revel- 
lings of the mind through the fields of inspiring literature ; in the 
associations that are strengthened by unselfish affection ; in the 
ambition to do good in the world and to uplift mankind ; in the 
sacred study of the moral demands of that which we call the soul ; 
in the fixed resolution to do better for the sake of being better 
rather than for gain or ease of conscience ; in the love of the beau- 
tiful, the true and the pure, as types of our best guiding influ- 
ences ; in that overturning of the heart which buries evil and 
resurrects good ; and in all that counts for improvement in its 
loftiest sense ; we see evidences of the soul-embryo, whose concep- 
tion, occurring in this life, breeds the man immortal. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 
A BATTLE IX THE SKY. 



[ 668 ] 




UMAN life is a struggle out of devil-blackness. 

This is the 668th Ralston Principle. It is not a pleasant 
one ; but a fact must be handled as a fact, if it is a part of 



the chain of evidence in an involved matter. It might, 
at first glance, seem unnecessary to go into the realm of blackness 
for material to prove the existence of a realm of whiteness ; but, 
as we proceed, the necessity for this plunge will become apparent. 
Our black chapter deals chiefly with the imperfections of humanity 
as consistent with the psychozoic period ; the present chapter will 
go deeper and search for the cause of all progress. 

Where hell is and what it is, might prove an interesting 
topic for discussion ; but even its existence does not concern us in 
this connection. The dictator of hell, the devil, is not to be left 
unconsidered ; for there is too much evidence of his presence and 
his workmanship, to discard the question as immaterial to the 
issue. If there is a cause for all the progress of the past, we should 
endeavor to ascertain its nature, and its bearing upon the prospects 
of the future. Two questions confront us : 

1. Is there a devil ? 

2. Is the devil a person or a power ? 

\Te make bold to say that we will prove quite clearly in this 
chapter that there is a devil ; and we shall not circumlocute in this 
effort. Opposed to the belief in such a being or power, is the 
sentiment of the softer part of inexperienced mankind, who ven- 
ture to hope that there is not, and consequently find some reason 
for so believing. 

The cold-blooded scientists look into the plain facts of 
creation, and give no attention to the colorings of those facts ; 
hence we are told that nature is rough, that her elements are merci- 
less, and that crudeness has marked with blood and torture the 
struggles of every species of life to maintain its hold on this planet. 
The claim is correct as far as it goes ; but it is hardly an entering 

(360) 



A BATTLE IN THE SKY 



361 



wedge in the mass that proves the workings of a devilish purpose 
to make man suffer. One of three things is true : 

1. Either that God is lifting man out of devil-blackness ; 

2. Or, that the Creator is needlessly cruel ; 

3. Or that man is drifting. 

If the third proposition is true, then there is no God ; all 
nature is answering to some blind code of laws; and some race 
other than our own will, under a steady improvement that is too 
patent to be denied, evolve a God ; for progress ad infinitum can- 
not stop short of that issue. It may be, after all, that we are 
agents only in the pregnancy of the solar system. This is specu- 
lation. We do not believe it for two reasons : first, there is no 
evidence to sustain the view ; second, there is an overwhelming 
mass of testimony against it. If the second proposition is true, 
then God is not a moral being ; for He has made humanity suffer 
untold and indescribable agonies since its first babe lay shelterless 
on the virgin soil. 

Let us see if you believe the second proposition to be 
true ; that God is needlessly cruel. We know that His hand has 
guided our footsteps ; that His special care has made life possible ; 
but has this been done for our good or merely to gratify His 
curiosity? In either case, if clone deliberately, it has been done 
cruelly, wantonly, maliciously ; and these are severe things to say 
against the Father of our being. Perhaps they are not true. If 
they are not true, then the first proposition is true, that God is 
lifting man out of devil-blackness. Xow there will come along 
the fly-away thinker who will declare that God is all-powerful, 
and must therefore be able to defy a hostile influence. This may 
be true ; if so, He is merely taking time to extricate man from the 
clutches of the enemy. But it may still be argued that God never 
permitted man to get into the clutches of Satan. If this is true, 
then it must follow that man is the offspring of Satan, and is being- 
rescued by the divine aid ; for it is true that we are in the clutches 
of an evil power of the most diabolical nature. 

[ "669— ] 
God is not needlessly cruel. 

This is the 669th Ralston Principle. It is a link in the chain 
of proof that existence is being lifted out of devil-blackness ; and 
it has the most important bearing upon the whole question of im- 



362 



IMMORTALITY 



mortality. Cruelty, of what seems a most needless character, is 
everywhere triumphant. It is found in every quarter of the globe, 
in every phase of life, and in every circumstance of earthly exist- 
ence. By reference to an early chapter of this volume, it may be 
seen that the little child, whose life was essential to the happiness 
of a home that was consecrated to God, was ruthlessly tortured by 
the venomous sting of a malignant spider ; the parents driven to 
insanity, and all trust in the benificence of the Creator dissolved 
into thin nothingness. Xow comes some thin-brained sentiment- 
alist and explains this havoc by saying that the calamity was 
ordained to test the zealous confidence of the parents in the loving 
purposes of an all-wise Providence. Such explanations are drivel- 
ling nonsense. Their childishness bears the stamp of infantile 
credulity that does no good, even where they soothe. It is like 
polishing an abscess with sandparjer. 

Cruelty may be discovered at every turn. The lightning 
and fire kill a hundred thousand people of this earth in every 
year, or one million in ten years. This is the least cause of death, 
yet its work accumulates in results. There are drowned on this 
globe each 3 T ear over two hundred thousand people, and in some 
years five times that number. These are purely the accidents of 
nature. Poison destroys its quota ; and it comes from the three 
great funds of earth : from rock, from vegetation, and from animal 
life. It has cost many lives to find what minerals are fatal to the 
body, and what plant juices kill. We do not know wherein danger 
threatens from insects, reptiles, or brutes, until the sacrifice has 
been made. The heat of the sun slays more than two millions 
every decade ; and the cold is equally cruel, though in much less 
numbers. The drenching rains chill the vitality, and fatal mal- 
adies ensue. Falls from heights, suffocation, fright, collision, and 
a multitude of accidents from all conceivable causes are bringing 
death to even those whose influence is needed in the world. And 
yet these influences are all on the side of casualty and elemental 
heedlessness ; they seem to be happenings that cannot be avoided. 
Yet a glance at the ingenious designs shown in the construction of 
the body proves that a Creator, having such power, would be able 
to wield it in averting the consequence of fire, lightning, water, 
cold, heat, gravity, poison, suffocation, collision, and other oper- 
ations of nature, whereby life is wantonly destroyed. The fact 
that God does not spare us is proof that another agency is at work, 



A BATTLE IN THE SKY 



363 



from which He is extricating us. If there is not a devil operating 
to do the world all the mischief possible, then God is needlessly 
cruel. The latter cannot be true, for the reason that a love divine 
shines afar off in the firmament, and its magnetism is drawing us 
toward it. 

[ ~ 67Q— ] 

If there is a personal God, there is also a personal 
devil. 

This is the 670th Ralston Principle. It takes the Bible at its 
word, many, many times expressed. It takes nature at its word, 
overwhelmingly expressed. Those who deny the statement, are 
the misguided men and women who are capable of taking any fact 
that appears disjointed to their belief, and remolding it to suit 
what they wish. They say if there is a personal devil, it is in the 
heart, and nowhere else ; for where else could it be ? The same is 
equally logical applied to the existence of God. If there is such a 
being, He is in the heart, for where else could He be? If the 
Creator has a separate home, or a place to occupy in space, it is 
just as possible that a devil may have a home and place of his 
own. It is not necessary to have a shape like the human body in 
order to be either a god or a devil. Shape may be left out of all 
consideration. What we do not know, we need not guess. There 
are two influences ; one is good, the other is bad. The persons 
who explain everything, tell us that the good emanates from God 
and the bad from man. If this is true, then man must be the 
enemy of God, and not the offspring; or else the good that 
emanates from man has a cause. Everything must be parented. 
If the devil is only in man's heart, then man is the personal devil, 
and our principle is proved. If the devil has an origin outside of 
man, then there is a personality ; and in either case our claim is 
sustained. You may decide whether man is that devil, or simply 
under the influence of another being ; but you cannot say that 
other being is merely imagination. See what follows. 

We have spoken of the heedlessness of the elements of 
nature, whereby millions go down to death without warning. We 
will now look at the malignant influences that are at work against 
the welfare of man ; and the claim is made that every one of these 
is the direct malice of a personal devil. They are collected at 
random, and but a small number of all there are, can be presented 



364 



IMMORTALITY 



in this brief compass. Others you may collate at will, if deemed 
worth the while. 

1. Pain is aimed designedly at the human family ; but only . 
incidentally at other species. 

2. Torture of the most excruciating nature is aimed design- 
edly at the human family ; but only incidentally at other species. 

3. Disappointment and mental anguish are aimed designedly 
at the human family ; but the other species are made incapable of 
suffering in this manner. Even where the savage animals devour 
other life as prey, a kind concealment clouds their pain by dulling 
the nerves through hypnotic influences. Thus, the mouse in the 
claws of the cat ; the bird about to be devoured ; the lamb in the 
clutches of the lion ; are instantly hypnotized by the flood of 
deadening magnetism, and the end is rather pleasurable ; but 
man}- a man, woman, and child, has gone down to the throes of 
death holding to the last the horrible tortures of physical and 
mental cruelty. 

4. The crawling serpent answers no purpose in life. He lives 
in vain, and has no right to live. The deadly poison with which 
he is endowed does not serve to protect him : it causes him to be 
hunted and destroyed, were he harmless, he would increase and 
thrive. So hideous is he in shape, appearance, action ; and so 
revengeful is the thrust that lodges its venom in the blood of an 
innocent child, that his existence cannot be explained except 
under our principle. 

5. All the poisonous insects, the spiders, tarantulas and 
others, are not armed with the deadly venom as a means of self- 
defense ; as it invites their death. It gives them an unfair advan- 
tage in a conflict with the best of our family ; for, before they can 
be crushed in the brief battle, their fluid has laid its foundation 
for a death of prolonged and growing agony. 

6. God never designed a course of procedure whereby an inno- 
cent girl, as sweet and loving as the best product of Heaven could 
be, is made not only to lose her life for nothing, but to pass 
through successive steps of anguish until the climax is inconceiv- 
ably horrible ; to swell in flesh until the skin turns black and 
bursts under the pressure of the pushing volcano ; to parch with a 
thirst unquenchable ; to have every fibre torn apart a hundred 
times ; demons upon the mind ; burning irons hooking into the eyes 
and piercing the brain ; and a thousand nerves lacerated ; all for 



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365 



nothing ; all unmerited ; all brought on by surprise, without the 
operation of a single law of life, upon the tender soul of a beauti- 
ful, innocent, lovable girl. And why? Because a despicably 
small and devilish insect, black and malignant in purpose, hideous 
in shape, hellish in cunning, is given the power, by a single thrust, 
a tiny prick, to lodge the wrath of his demoniac nature into the 
blood of the fairest flower in all the great garden of creation. Do 
you believe God made this fiend, and endowed him with that 
malevolent faculty? If not, then how came it? Things must 
have a cause. There is certainly a devil there. Sentimentalises 
tell us that the devil is simply a condition of the human heart. 
What condition of the human heart gave birth to the living asp, 
the spider, the serpent? 

7. We have seen a man so badly stung by bees that he died 
in agony. Who gave the power of inflicting so great pain to so 
small a piece of life ? It is not for self-defense, for it works the 
other way. 

8. A porcupine has quills which are barbed. If these were 
intended for defensive purposes, their points would serve all the 
needs of such a demand ; but when the man who has been so 
attacked, or who finds himself with a few score of these quills in 
his flesh, undertakes to remove them, the barbs, arranged like fish- 
hooks, prevent their withdrawal. Every quiver of the flesh, every 
pulsation of the arteries, moves them ; and as they can move in 
but one direction, they go in, and in, and in, until they pierce the 
heart. Sometimes men have suffered through weeks and months 
of indescribable agony, from these barbed quills. Is the porcu- 
pine defending himself while the man is suffering ? The fact is 
that such a faculty of causing pain is sure to bring death and not 
defense to the animal. But who would think of devising such 
cruel methods of attack ? They hold all the inventiveness of the 
angel of arch-cunning, who is the demon of malice. 

9. Who tells the cat to spring upon the breast of the sleeping- 
babe, and there to inhale as the child exhales, there to exhale its 
own poisonous breath close to the mouth of the child when it in- 
hales ; until it dies of suffocation ? While the instances are rare, 
they are well authenticated. But the chief point is the intelligent 
malice, the wizard-like witchery, with which the animal proceeds 
to rob a useful life for one most worthless. 

10. What instinct, or devilish clairvoyance, is given to the 



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IMMORTALITY 



cat that prowls about the house of the dead ; and holds it enchained 
by the hideous fancy of a spirit-separating corpse. If you will 
open the window under such circumstances, you will run the risk 
of meeting the changed face of this most treacherous animal, and 
there find the glance of Satan in the fearful hideousness of the eyes. 
The transformation is complete. 

11. The dog, suffering from hydrophobia, is a danger to the 
happiness of those who fall his victims. There are physicians who 
deny that there is such a disease ; but they are always poor in 
practice, limited in purse, or sensational by design. The germ of 
hydrophobia is a bacillus, after the same order as the bacterium 
of tetanus, or lockjaw. We have collected proved cases of over 
six hundred adults and children who have died horrible deaths 
after being bitten by dogs. This suffering, and its alighting upon 
the innocent, are unnecessary and serve no purpose in creation. 
God never instituted them. 

12. One of the saddest cases of death from the bite of a mad 
dog, was that of a beautiful boy about ten years of age. The dog 
was a large Newfoundland ; and had shown a vicious temper at 
various times ; but its brute owner defied public sentiment and 
refused to kill him. One day the animal attacked the boy in the 
yard of the latter' s home, where he was innocently at play. After 
a few weeks the little boy was taken ill, and passed through the 
stages incident to the malady. The pretty face became distorted, 
the features were hardened and knotted, the eyes bulged out and 
seemed ready to burst with fire, the flesh swelled ; and the boy, 
barking like a dog, frothing at the mouth, rolling and screaming 
in agony, was kept for three days in this furnace of excruciating- 
torture until death ended the unfair conflict. Who invented that 
venom ? Who made the design against human life ? God never 
did. He could not. 

13. There are small animals and small vegetable beings that 
are instruments of the severest torture ; all unnecessary in the plan 
of creation. Science has been at work the last quarter of a century 
discovering them ; and they are now brought to light. 

14. There is, in the soil, a certain bacterium that seems to 
have been created to destroy man' s life by the most agonizing of 
methods. It is the tetanus bacillus. It produces lockjaw. One 
who has seen a death of this character will never refuse to believe 
in a personal devil. 



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367 



15. The germ of consumption is at work now in millions of 
lives. The happiest of mankind fall before its slow malice. There 
is no need of its existence in the world. 

16. The typhoid germ is another bacillus designed to attack 
the intestines and take human life. It is unnecessary. 

17. Diphtheria is caused by a most malignant bacterium, as 
wicked as the cunning brain of revenge could devise ; and many 
are the millions that have fallen prey to its ravages. It walks in 
anguish, works in torture, and leaves behind it a wake of sorrow 
in numberless households. 

18. Cholera is another germ, even more malignant. 

19. The bacillus of the yellow fever is now known. It is, like 
all other germs of disease, an intelligent fiend invented to bring 
misery into the world. 

20. Leprosy is a skin malady due to still another germ that 
will not be destroyed. The filthy and repulsive leper is an object 
of distant pity and loathing, made so by the design of a power at 
work against man and God. 

21. Small-pox, and its varieties : anthrax ; boils, abscesses, 
tumors, cancers ; and a host of unnecessary ills ; are potent in- 
struments of revenge ; not one of which serves any purpose what- 
ever except to assail the health, the peace, the happiness of man, 
under circumstances of such aggressive pain that no power except 
a most malignant devil could have invented them. 

22. At the time of this writing there is, not many doors away, 
a patient woman suffering from a cancer in the breast. Its tenta- 
cles spread in all directions, shaping the fearful scourge like a 
tarantula ; and their roots are deep and secure. If the cancer is 
cut out, any one root or part remaining is sure to renew the evil ; 
and to cut out the roots would destroy the life of the woman. She 
is near death. For the past three years her sufferings have been 
all that mortal being could endure. Now so far advanced is its 
power over her, that she cannot lie down. Her life is spent sitting 
in agony, standing in torture, and walking in horrible anguish. 
Still that malignant cancer clings relentlessly to her flesh, and is 
deliberately delaying its fatal stroke in order that her sufferings 
may be prolonged to the last hour of pain. 

23. There are poisons lurking in food ; there are poisons in 
vines and flowers ; and poisons in the fluids and solids of earth ; 
that have laid low many a life. 



368 



IMMORTALIT Y 



24. If man seeks to raise his own food, and he must do it or 
perish, the devil attempts to choke them with weeds, or to destroy 
them by insects. Nearly all fruits are prey to these influences ; 
and the more the quality is improved, the more it is attacked by 
enemies. We see this in the blighting of the pears, the mildewing 
of the grapes, and the premature loss of apples, plums, peaches, 
apricots, and other kinds, through the sting of insects that serve 
only to do injury. 

25. Fields of potatoes are sacrificed to the ravages of special 
enemies, unless a constant fight is carried on to protect them. 

26. The same may be said of everything of value in the lists, 
of foods for man's use. Armies of grasshoppers have plunged 
many a section of the country into the horrors of famine by their 
unmeaning assaults on valuable bread-stuffs : unmeaning unless 
there is a personality of evil at war with God and man. 

27. Look back to the time of ancient Rome during the centu- 
ries of her splendor when the millions of Christians were driven to 
the catacombs, or living dungeons dug in the clay of Italy, where 
they suffered and perished. Think of the damp homes ; the gaunt 
figure of disease ; the dependent children, sweetly cherished, yet 
crying in vain for sunshine, play and happiness. Why was so 
large a division of the human race made to suffer such misery, 
when the world was wide and vast, and plenty lay everywhere in 
the lap of earth ? 

28. Collect, if you will, the thousands of incidents of crime 
and cruelty recorded in the Bible. You hardly know how much 
wickedness is mentioned in that book. It gives warrant for the 
extermination of the Asiatic Caucasian, or continental barbarians, 
as you please ; and the burning of the cities ; yet God never planted 
that wickedness in their hearts. It either grew there itself, in which 
case they were the offspring of the devil ; or else it was put there 
by the devil ; it matters not which. 

29. Who invented the thousand ingenious methods of torture, 
which, through the long succession of centuries, have sent more 
cries of agony to heaven than there are birds flying beneath the 
empyrean ? 

30. Who suggested the dungeons of Spain, where men and 
women are lowered out of the world, often for trivial causes, and 
never see again the daylight, never hear the voice of song, nor 
know the blessed sunshine : but linger in the dark, fed through 



A BATTLE IN THE SKY, 



369 



black holes, and perish at last in the accumulations of their own 
filth? Did God, or any benevolent being, create such a degraded 
custom of punishing erring man ? 

31. Who assails human reputation by the two-edged sword 
of gossip ; haggles every pure name in the chaldron of malicious 
revenge ; invents lies to injure, enlarges truth to crush, and dis- 
torts language in every way that will aid in maligning the inno- 
cent ? We have seen gossipers lunging forth venom with but one 
end in view, and that to blacken some noble character ; and, if it 
be true that the features of the evil one can stamp themselves on 
the lineaments of humanity, we have seen the devil's face in the 
contortions of the gossiper, and that more than once. 

82. Look into the eyes of the man who has taken whiskey 
into the stomach. The face is no longer that of the loving hus- 
band, the tender father, but the hideous front of Satan. 

33. Alcoholism was never invented by the Creator. Fermen- 
tation is caused by bacteria, of the same class as the germs that 
cause malignant diseases ; and all that life is of the devil ; for it is 
designed solely to hurt man and drive happiness out of the world. 

34. When the devil loses his hold over the race in one way, 
he seeks to recover it in another. There have been so many mur- 
ders committed by drunken men ; so many happy homes destroyed 
by this curse, that the people were beginning to rise up against it : 
and then the ingenuity of the devil became apparent. He proved 
himself in this part of the conflict equal to the conditions. 

35. He enlisted the support of the press in his favor. He 
did it by the advertising department. Great newspapers must 
make money. The dailies are driven to every extreme to get cash. 
They cannot afford to refuse a dollar from any source ; so you will 
read advertisements of every kind that tend to demoralize decency: 
dirty personals, the exploits of prostitutes, the great races, where 
gambling is the only inducement to existence ; cigars, cigarettes, 
tobacco, wine, rum; hundreds of brands of champagnes, wines, 
whiskies and beers ; and low amusements, where all the vices of 
hell congregate. 

36. It might seem enough to accept the dollars of these crim- 
inals in return for a profligate purring of their evil influences ; but 
the devil knew how badly the daily papers, and others, needed 
the dollars, and a steady contribution from criminals; so he insti- 
gated the owners, the editors, the reporters, and the cliques that 



370 



IMMORTALITY 



write up squibs, to build a wall of protection around these crimi- 
nals and their crimes. 

37. This wall of protection was the popularizing of the crimes 
by calling them public benefactions, and an assault upon reformers 
by making them odious to everybody. This the devil has suc- 
ceeded in doing. If you will watch the career of most any daily 
paper, their being but few exceptions, you will find it praising 
crime, ridiculing reformers, and posing as a friend to decency by 
the advocacy of some charity for advertising purposes only. 

38. So completely has the press of America educated the 
people to like crime and to hate decency, that the clientele of every 
such paper now looks with ridicule upon all reforms, and hates 
the very name of reformer. 

39. As a result of this controlling of the daily press by the 
devil, the use of intoxicants is increasing very rapidly, especially 
at this very time. Millions of dollars are annually being invested 
in new breweries and distilleries ; crimes are increasing ; murders 
from drunkenness are almost doubling, suicides are more fre- 
quent ; poverty is growing ; homes are being shattered ; and the 
attendant vices of gambling and prostitution are absorbing large 
parts of communities. In the meantime the advertisements in the 
papers are getting larger, and the money of whiskey, of the horse- 
race and the disreputable sections is flowing in bulkier streams 
into the coffers of the papers. 

40. Public opinion is also changing under the tutelage of the 
press. People are not afraid to condemn the so-called blue laws 
of decency ; they like personal freedom ; and, as a result, the crisis 
of the not distant future will come when dollars will flow in rivers 
to breweries and distilleries ; who, in ther turn, will own com- 
pletely what they now control, to wit, ninety-seven per cent, of 
the newspapers of America. Every distiller, every brewer, every 
prominent saloon keeper, becomes as soon as possible a stock- 
holder in some daily paper. 

41. Through the press, thus controlled, the Sabbath is 
doomed ; for the money that supports churches and charity, is 
too great in volume to be allowed to go to good ; the brewers and 
distillers wish it, and they are sure to get it, for the press is a 
powerful factor in molding public opinion among criminals, weak- 
minded moralists, and dishonest officials. It frightens many a 
minister and judge from the path of duty. 



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371 



42. There is but one influence in America stronger than the 
press ; and that is the saloon. This was seen in the first mayor- 
alty election in New York city. There the combined papers of 
the great metropolis opposed Tammany ; but they were no longer 
leaders of opinion ; they went down to defeat by an overwhelming 
plurality ; and the saloons triumphed. It is almost the first time 
in American history that the press and saloons have been on op- 
posite sides of a political issue. 

43. Satan works through intellectual processes. He knows 
how to reach public opinion. He knows^how to flatter the minds 
of indecisive natures, and lead them to see nothing but ridicule 
in good. Nicknames, sarcasm, and caricature are his ready tools; 
and he gives them to the moral to use against the moral. You 
never heard or saw these weapons applied to bad people. When 
did you ever know a prostitute, a gambler, a saloon-keeper, or a 
reporter called a 1 1 reformer, " or a " crank ?/ ' The devil hands 
them to his allies, and to w 7 eak-kneed moral men and women, to 
apply to every person who aims a shaft at his] malevolent majesty. 

44. Gambling is so diabolical a business that it required some 
master spirit of evil to invent it. There is nothing in the lowest 
brutes that suggests the elements of igambiing. It came from an 
intellect and is designed for one. In any and every city and town 
in this country, it is prevalent to a degree^hard to understand. In 
the West, there are towns and cities wdiere a majority of the male 
population are devotees of the vice. 

45. A single case is an average illustration of the mild forms 
of this evil. A man who had spent twenty years in earning the 
money to pay for a home, was lured by lies that were so ingeni- 
ously told that few persons could know their danger, to the home 
of a friend, as he thought. Here they introduced an innocent 
game of cards, common to many household pleasures. He never 
suspected that he was in a gambling den. The steps were light 
and slight that took him to the wager of a few^cents, a few dollars, 
and then larger sums. He was allowed to win ; till, flushed with 
victory, he gave way to that irresistible fascination which Satan 
throws around cards and wagers ; and, in one swoop, they robbed 
him of his life-long savings. It was the ingenuity of a master 
spirit of evil. Thousands suffer in this way every year. In a town 
of one thousand inhabitants in the W est a hundred of them are 
black-legs. 



372 



IMMORTALITY 



46. No man can explain the alcohol-appetite except on the 
principle of a personal devil. It arouses all the hellishness that can 
be concentrated in the compass of the heart. Here is an average 
case of the milder sort. A gentleman of talents, of aspirations, or 
business judgment, had a wife and three young daughters. They 
lived happily together in an attractive cottage, with a little garden, 
and the pleasantest of surroundings. At length an ignorant doc- 
tor prescribed beer as a tonic ; the use of this created an alcohol- 
appetite ; the man became a drunkard ; he was unfit for business ; 
lost his income ; bummed about town vomiting and sickening in 
every spree ; until, seeing home and Heaven lost, he killed his 
wife, and two of his daughters, and cut off both hands of the 
third ; then slew himself. This is the business that public senti- 
ment sustains. This is the profession of evil that collects from 
workingmen and wage-earners more millions of dollars every year 
than they spend for the needs of life. This is the business that is 
erecting new breweries and distilleries annually and levying a 
greater tax on the people to pay for them, than is collected for the 
purposes of government. 

47. In the Roman era of civilization, when the triumph of the 
mind in art, literature, luxury and architecture had reached the 
zenith of human possibility, the powerful majority of the people 
levied their malice upon every moralist, as is being done to-day ; 
and these refined Romans delighted themselves with the art of 
crucifixion. For miles upon miles, the roads leading to their city 
were lined with trees upon which hung the bodies of men and women, 
transfixed, nailed head-downward with spikes driven through the 
hands and feet, and left to the horrors of parching thirst, of excru- 
ciating inflammation, and blood-boiling pains ; even the eye-balls 
bursting in their swollen excess ; and the sight gave those luxu- 
rious heroes of civilization, a more exquisite round of pleasure 
than flowers and music present to our modern minds. Whence 
came the spirit that could lacerate nerves and flesh of fellow mor- 
tals? Do we not have enough to suffer and endure from causes 
beyond human control, without adding to these burdens the in- 
ventions of ingenious diabolism ? 

48. Look to the misdeeds of our black chapter, especially the 
tortures inflicted by the machines that vied with each other in the 
power to heap anguish upon agony ; and say if you think man 
alone is capable of so much of the spirit of hell. If he is, then 



A BATTLE IN THE SKY 



373 



lie is the offspring of hell. If not, then he has behind him the 
devil himself. 

A brief glance in review shows us two influences at work 
in earthly existence, and these may be summarized as follows : 

a. There are tissue germs of health which build the body ■ 
they are useful and blessed. 

b. Opposed to them are tissue germs of disease ; hacteria, 
bacilli, and the most fiendish microscopic life, whose only mission 
is malice, torture and cruel death. 

a. There are foods that build the body ; they are useful and 
blessed. 

b. There are poisons that kill the body ; they serve no other 
purpose. 

a. Plants grow for man's benefit. 

b. Weeds attack all good plants. 

a. There are tame animals that supply the body with food, 
and others that help to lighten the burden of toil. 

b. There are savage animals that destroy human life, and 
attack the animals that aid man. 

a. There are insects, birds and fish that are, in certain ways, 
helpful to man. 

b. There are insects that are venomous and kill ; serpents that 
are venomous and kill ; and sharks, as well as other types of water 
life, that serve only to destroy. 

a. There are men who toil and save. 

b. There are others who rob and waste. 

a. There are those who cherish life and endeavor to preserve 
it in safety. 

b Opposed to them, are those Avho murder and destroy life 
wantonly. 

a. There are those who cultivate happiness and prosperity. 

b. Opposed to them are others who hate success and malign 
the happy. 

a. There are those who b} r good resolution and honest practice 
attempt to elevate the mind and heart to higher planes of living. 

b. Opposed to them are others who seek always to tear down 
the good, and tempt men and women to do evil. 

a. There is the church which, in spite of many exceptions, is 
ever exerting an influence for the good of humanity. 

b. Opposed to the church is the drinking room, presided over 



374 



IMMORT A LIT Y 



by the devil, in which all motives are evil, all thoughts evil, and 
all influences directed straight toward hell. 

a. The Bible, despite whatever defects may have attended its 
compilation, is the peerless work of all time, and its pages abound 
with marvelous and sublime truths ; all tending to make man 
better and happier. 

b. Opposed to this noble influence, is the endless, multi-paged 
volume of the devil, the newspaper ; which pretends to respecta- 
bility and yet is the mouth-piece of gamblers, prostitutes, brewers, 
distillers and the whole vile set of mental and moral out-casts that 
infest this fair world ; the destroyer of the Bible, the Church and 
the Sabbath. 

a. There are honest men and women. 

b. There are liars, cheats and frauds. 

a. The impulses of charity blend mercy with the misfortunes 
of poor humanity. 

b. The impulses of gambling rob men and homes of their 
needs and comforts, and plunge them into the vortex of poverty. 

a. There is cleanliness with its inspiring virtues. 

b. There is filth with its degrading bestiality. 

a. There is love that opens the clouds and lets through a flood 
of sunshine. 

b. There is hate that speaks evil, looks evil, thinks evil, and 
does evil. 

a. There is industry that uses and enhances the faculties. 

b. There is laziness that alwa}^s makes copartnership with 
Satan. 

a. There is harmony in music, colors, mind and heart. 

b. There is discord that tears at peace and lacerates every 
beautiful and holy sentiment in life. 

We repeat the words of the principle, that if there is a. 
personal God, there is also a personal devil. Side by side the two 
powers are seen at work, in every phase of existence, in every place, 
in every hour. The sane mind stands face to face with the insane ; 
the wholesome body is threatened by disease ; the cheerful moment 
casts a shadow in its front or rear ; the success of to-day is hedged 
by the defeat of to-morrow ; and so the story goes : 
"There never was a streamlet, however crystal clear, 
Without a shadow resting in the ripples of its tide. 
Hope's brightest ropes are broidered with the sable fringe of fear ; 
And she lures — but abysses girt her path on either side. 



A BATTLE IN THE SKY 



375 



The shadow of a mountain falls athwart the lowly plain ; 

And the shadow of the cloudlet hangs above the mountain's head ; 
And the highest hearts and lowest wear the shadow of some pain, 

And the smile is scarcely flitted ere the anguished tear is shed.'' 

Were life organized under the benign influences of God, 
with no contravening power at work to defeat it, the pain, the sor- 
row, the anguished tear would have been impossible. We do not 
believe the unnecessary would happen. If there were no love, no 
tender care, no attraction toward beauty, peace and happiness, we 
could easily conceive God as a being devoid of the high attributes 
of mercy and protection; although He would always of necessity 
appear as perfection, for the goal of creation is already in sight as 
the exponent of a perfect plan. Being certain of a good influence 
at work in favor of man, we naturally infer that such influence is 
the special design of a loving and moral Creator. Of this there is 
no chance for doubt. 

But the black and malign influence is opposed to God. 
It is not contrary to the conception of a perfect and all-powerful 
Ruler of the universe to recognize an enemy yet unconquered. 
Some persons cry out, ' 1 God is omnipotent. He cannot be op- 
posed. The very suggestion of opposition at once challenges His 
universal power." This argument is sentiment. God is opposed. 
The fact is before us. Such sentiment is like the advice of a Texas 
lawyer who called at the country jail to visit a client behind the 
bars. "This cannot be," said the lawyer; "they cannot put you 
in jail; the law forbids it." "But here I am," said the client. 
So the man who says that God cannot be opposed is met by the 
fact that such opposition is world-wide and deep. Then comes 
the dove-tailed explanation that man is a free agent, and this ac- 
counts for the opposition, which is really the permission of God to 
man to go to the devil if he pleases. This is extravagant ill-logic-. 
A father who loves his child does not place him between the stern 
necessities of a straight moral course and the allurements of gilded 
evil, and say to him, 1 1 You are easily misled ; if you go astray 
you will go to the devil ; you may go to the devil or not, as you 
please." This is cold-blooded theology. Free agency exists, it 
is true; but it exists because Satan has a stronger hold on man 
than God has. A father who loves his child will keep him away 
from the railroad train, and not permit him to run at will upon 
the dangerous track. Imagine a tender mother, who loves her 



376 



IMMORTALITY 



little daughter, when the child comes her way ; but who makes 
her a free agent, in her ignorance and helplessness, to fall into the 
fire, if she so pleases, and thus to die. True love does not permit 
clangers and temptations to hedge themselves around the life of 
the cherished ones ; and the fact that the}' are there is proof that 
the parent is to that extent opposed by forces not immediately to 
be controlled. There are many stupid things in theology, and the 
most inane doctrines have been swallowed even by sensible people; 
but for sheer silliness there is nothing to excel the claim, invented 
to fit conditions that could not be understood, that God, having 
all power and all wisdom, created man and then permitted evil to 
destroy him. If God created everything, He created the serpent, 
the devil and the temptation that slew the pastoral hero and 
heroine of the imaginative poem of Genesis. We vouchsafe to say 
that no person who has a second thought, or the capacity to enter- 
tain one, can believe any such theory. It is not believed. It 
places God at the foot of the primary class of novices. A more 
sublime conception is that which shows the Divine Father at work 
extricating man from the clutches of the devil ; and this is evi- 
dence of His power in reality. It is the only explanation of the 
conditions that confront us. It is proved to be a true one, on 
every hand and by every fact. 

We, therefore, are justified in the conclusion that the 
past has been a long era of devil-blackness, every step out of which 
has been taken under the inspiring guidance of God. How it 
originated is a mystery. That there should be evil in the world 
is hard to understand. The only comfort in the conflict of doubt, 
comes from the fact that there is good also in the world. We can- 
not deny either of these facts, for they are impressed on every act 
of nature, and in every phase of life. Then, too, it is well known 
that the good is combated by evil ; that the baneful is the enemy 
of the blessed. Is it true that God is emerging out of the evil ? 
Is it true that His power and kingdom have not yet been estab- 
lished? Is it true that all was black and chaotic in the past, and 
that harmony is working itself out for the future ? Under such 
view we find no all-powerful Creator up to the present time ; but 
merely the process of developing one, still at work. Such an ex- 
planation will account for the conditions of the past and the cur- 
rent history of the earth and its inhabitants. Is it the true solu- 
tion of this problem? 



A BATTLE IN THE SKY 



377 



A war is being fought in the universe. 

This is the 671st Ralston Principle, and it embodies chiefly a 
fact that carries in its soul the explanation of the conditions under 
which we live. This proposition is true, no matter what view is 
taken of the origin of God. It is either the conflict suggested in 
the preceding paragraph, in which the Creator, like everything 
else that is good, is being developed out of pregnant nature ; or 
else He has been the Ruler of the universe from the beginning, 
and rebellion has precipitated the conflict now being enacted. 
This is the sum of the whole matter. The scientist may incline to 
the theory that good is working itself out of bad ; but no man can 
assert that this is being done blindly. Accidents are incidents in 
nature, never purposes. Let us see now how you stand. The 
chapters of this volume introduce you to facts and conditions that 
cannot be evaded. They are told to you in every possible way, 
from every standpoint, and out of every language, of nature, of 
the body, of the mind, of the heart. Conflicting as the sources 
seem to be, the facts have a wonderful concordance. They agree 
in origin ; they agree in purpose ; they agree in process ; they 
agree in their forecasting of the future ; they point to the same 
goal. 

You cannot read these many chapters, with their all- 
viewing and all-comparing kaleidoscopic pictures, .with their uni- 
formity of story and focus-like tendency of unfolding develop- 
ment ; without finding yourself hemmed in by an alternative, 
from which you cannot escape : 

1. It is true, either that God is being created out of the con- 
flict that is going on in nature ; 

2. Or that there has been a rebellion in the past, the end of 
which is near at hand. 

Whichever theory you accept, the same conclusion is reached ; 
that a war is being fought in the universe. The careless scientist 
will say : 1 ' But this conflict is merely the process by which crea- 
tion is carried on." Such a theory is contradicted by the spider's 
venom, the serpent's sting, the savage's cruelty, the civilized tor- 
ture, the demons of hatred, the fiend's malice, the murderer's 
bloody blade, and the devilish agonies wrought in the human 
body by the hellish little germs that live only to kill, and slay 
only by hideous inventions of diabolical torments. These methods 



378 



IMMORTALITY 



of war are the offspring of thought. They are in no way connected 
with growth, or with creation, or with the development of man ; 
for they seek to destroy growth, they defy creation; and, if they 
had full sway, man would never survive. They show a most de- 
liberate purpose to thwart God's plan, to check nature, and to 
prevent all progress. There is no theory whereby they can be 
accepted as a part of the scheme of creation. This conclusion is 
reached through the facts of nature, and through the evidence 
furnished by science. It is pleasant to turn to the Bible and there 
find it set forth in language so plain that no manner of misinter- 
pretation can twist it to mean anything else. From the opening 
chapters to the close of that sublime work, we are confronted by 
the machinations of the devil. He is referred to hundreds of 
times, and is called by many names ; and his lurid home is de- 
scribed in word-painting that turns poetry into prose. 

Dishonest theologians, bending to the silly ridicule of the 
press, have come to doubt the plain language of the Bible as to 
the existence of the devil. The press never thinks ; it talks. The 
press never argues ; it calls names ; and when the reasoning facul- 
ties are paralyzed, the only recourse is to terms, ridicule, sarcasm 
and nick-names. These things hurt the preachers ; especially 
those who are preaching for their bread and butter ; so they are 
blown about by the talk of newspapers ; and, to please them, they 
have almost agreed that Satan is a myth, the devil a poem, and 
hell a trope of rhetoric. In doing this they have abandoned the 
Bible, and the very reason for its existence ; they have abandoned 
religion, yet pretend to be authorized of God to preach it. If 
there is a universe, there is a personal devil. If the earth is a fact, 
Satan is a fact. Logic tells us there is no effect that is without its 
cause, except the first Great Cause. The good we see marching 
on to full fruition must have its cause ; and so must the deliberate 
evil. Perhaps science will come back to the Bible in the course of 
time. Perhaps the story of Adam and the downfall of man is a 
reflective inspiration founded upon transactions enacted in other 
scenes than those of earth. If God has always been the supreme 
creator, then some such story must be true somewhere, as the 
conflict indicates rebellion, and rebellion certainly led to down- 
fall. The closest reasoning of science makes the plot of Milton's 
Paradise Lost a necessary part of pre-planetary history. If Eden 
can be set back one hundred million } T ears, and its location placed 



A BATTLE /A THE SKY 



379 



in Heaven or upon this earth in an age of pristine glory, before 
geology began to record its history, it is a believable story ; but, 
whatever may be the fact, it is true that the theory of an angel's 
fall is sustained by the conditions of good and evil now present. 
In other words, the determined character of the assault on life and 
the uplifting tendencies of creation, shows a personal malevolence 
back of it, too ugly and too fiendish to be ascribed to accident or 
incident. 

If the better man did not once fall, if an angel or arch- 
angel did not lose caste, then the force of evil has been eternal ; 
and the age of devil-blackness continued unchecked or undimin- 
ished up to the time the Caucasians came upon the earth about six 
or eight thousand years ago. In any event, the world has had to 
remain in this debased condition for a long series of periods. Like 
the material progress of the planet itself ; like the intellectual prog- 
ress of life ; there has been a steady rising out of the black past. 
We see it changing from the chaos of water life, through the ugly 
amphibians, to reptiles ; then up to ferocious beasts who held sway 
over all the earth, with not one tame animal yet born ; then through 
the apes to the brute-savages ; above these, the black race of Ne- 
groes ; above them the brown race of Malays ; above them the 
red race of Indians ; above them the yellow race of Mongols ; and 
on top of all the white race of Caucasians. Color does not count 
for nothing. It is the illuminated story of human advance. There 
is nothing left but the perfect white. That will come. 

Looking at the sun's corona, we see the present remnant 
of the conflict ; for the earth is and has been the child of every 
change that has occurred in the solar orb. We see a commotion 
that is grand to behold. Great masses of matter, gases, molten 
globules, fragments of every size and shape, are shot out thousands 
of miles from the million cannon of the sun ; and, cooling against 
the confines of space, they drop back again, to be re-melted, re- 
resolved to gases and sent forth in endless repetition. Meanwhile 
under them is the steady light of the great globe of fire, pushing 
its rays off into space and carrying away, little by little, the sub- 
stance of the enemy, if this assaulting array may be so termed. It 
has been generally accepted by astronomers that the sun's spots 
are depressions in its photosphere, which is the envelope that sur- 
rounds it and answers to our atmosphere. These depressions are 
caused by downfalls of cool material, showing that smoke, and 



380 



IMMORTALITY 



clouds of opaque gases, many cut off their intensity of the heat 
sufficiently to allow a partial cooling of the fiery vapor ; which, 
being precipitated, is thrown off again. We know that small 
meteorites in our own cold atmosphere are heated to incandescence 
by friction between themselves and the air they come in contact 
with ; and it is therefore not difficult to imagine that enormous 
masses, falling with great velocities through the sun's highly heated 
atmosphere, would be competent to give rise to those disturbances 
with which we are familiar on the sun's surface. By this means 
it is supposed that the energy of that orb is maintained, deducting 
only the shrinkage that yearly occurs. 

The battle of the sun is described by astronomers as con- 
sisting of a "down-rush " and an "up-rush;" these being of all 
degrees of vehemence, and affecting all sizes of matter, from the 
smallest to the largest masses. Hence the depressions cause the 
various sizes of sun-spots; the smallest being called "pores;" 
others ' 1 granulations ;' ' others ' ' smudgy pores, ' ' or " veiled-spots ;" 
some being black specks ; while the largest appear in spot zones. 
Violent commotions occur at times, in which the umbra and pen- 
umbra are tremendously contorted and mixed up. The disturb- 
ance often affects enormous areas of the sun's surface ; one spot in 
1851 being 140,000 miles in diameter. Every fall of matter into 
the sun's furnace seems to leave a hole behind, which looks darker 
than the rest of the photosphere, and is therefore called a spot. 
This is gradually covered over. The most intense degree of action 
of an "up-rush " is exhibited by the metallic prominences, which 
are seen mounting upward to enormous heights with almost in- 
credible velocities. Such "rushes" have been seen with a speed 
of 250 miles a second, darting upward to a height of 400,000 miles. 
A very slight reflection will tell us what must be the explosive 
expansion of the sun's energies, that will hurl masses of material 
much larger than our earth, out into space a distance almost twice 
as far as the moon is from this planet. It is certainly a battle 
royal. 

Since it is a well established fact that the sun has been 
shrinking, and is growing less every year, it must be true that it 
was once of enormous size ; and the matter that has been thrown 
from it not being capable of loss, must be parts of the planets and 
materials composing the solar system. Thus we see that the earth's 
accretions spoken of in the earlier chapters of this book, are con- 



A BATTLE IN THE SKY 



381 



sistent with the sun's shrinkage. If we wish to know what has 
been driven from the sun, we have only to look at what this planet 
has accumulated. We do not claim that the transit has occurred 
in the form of composite matter or chemical molecules ; but as 
atoms in the sun's rays, of which all molecules are made. The devil- 
blackness of nature in the preceding periods of the earth's history, 
indicates what has been reeled off the sun ; the improvement here 
shows the better condition in what remains of the sun ; and if God 
is at work in this process, the sun itself devoid of the elements of 
war may be a glorious temple of the Creator. 

Were the imagination to take free flight into the heights of 
fancy we might picture the sun as an all-brilliant world, glittering 
in its inner courts with all the gorgeous splendors ascribed to 
Heaven itself ; streets paved with gold, for gold is in the sun, 
since it has been sent to earth hy that orb ; walls of jasper and 
onyx, studded with diamonds ; gates of pearl and opal, hinged 
with rubies and pillars of sapphire ; and palaces streaming with 
the rich lustres of emerald and amethyst, of garnet and chalcedomy, 
and every conceivable jewel that the wealth of lavishing invention 
can mold in the heart of beauty. All these shining glories may 
dwell within the great area of the sun, far away from the conflict 
that is being waged at its outer circle. Something is there of superb 
magnificence ; and the God that planned the energies of the sun, 
had power to establish His imperial cities in its center. If He and 
His angels exist anj^where, they must exist in the universe ; and 
the sun is one of the stars of the universe. All these thoughts are 
suggestive of that which is possible though unknown. Heaven 
itself may be the center of all the sky, yet so far away that the 
greatest telescopes cannot reach its location ; and the government 
of the eternal domain may extend its courts into all the solar sys- 
tems that are included in the boundless realms of space ; cities and 
peoples may thrive in the happiness of perfection, endless through- 
out the everlasting years ; and knowledge, running on in tempting 
fields of flight, may introduce to us the hidden secrets of creation, 
the mysteries of life, and the priceless gem of immortality, now 
sleeping in the dazzling casket of the jewelled future. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 



CREATION OF THE SOUL. 



[ 672 ] 




'HE soul is a metamorphosis. 

This is the 672d Ralston Principle. It represents a 
law and a fact ; and as such it is incumbent on us to pre- 



sent an array of proof, or else fall back upon the old belief 
that a human being possesses a soul from the moment of birth; or, 
perhaps, before that event. 

It is worth keeping in mind that the term soul may be 
properly applied to the brain, the heart, the body, or the meta- 
morphosis. The latter word is not so difficult as it looks. It is 
the best that the language affords for the idea to be expressed. It 
literally means a change of form or life-character. The common 
example is that of the caterpillar which enters the chrysalis state, 
from which it emerges a butterfly. It is the same life rehabilitated. 
In nature, nothing but the beautiful comes to a metamorphosis. 
The diamond is the cheapest and commonest of matter; being 
almost pure carbon, like coal. It is combustible, and leaves hardly 
any perceptible ash. To understand the process of metamorphosis 
by which woods, charcoal, coal, or any combustible matter, is 
changed to so beautiful and valuable a gem, try the following ex- 
periment: Place sugar in a large pail of water, until all that can 
be held in solution has been mixed with the liquid; then suspend 
some pieces of soft cord; and, as the water evaporates, the sugar will 
cling to the strings, but not like the sugar that was put in; it is now 
a mass of beautiful crystals, all hanging like clustered diamonds 
in miniature pillars. It is a metamorphosis from the plain to the 
exquisite form. 

The human body is an intelligent vitality, encased in a 
material shape for the convenience of earthly use. The matter is 
ever changing, for it is only by change that it is able to express 
life; as we have already shown in elaborate discussion in other 
pages of this volume. It is drawn from several funds. One of 

(382) 



CREATION Oh THE SOUL 



383 



these is the fund of matter. No fact is better established in all 
nature, than that the material of which the body consists is given 
back to the general fund, to be used over again. The same is true 
of the vitality; for animals, plants, and all life partake of the same 
supply that comes to human beings, and goes from them. These 
funds are general. The great sea of intelligence is likewise a 
common source to all life. Every cell in vegetable construction 
contains a nucleus or brain; these, scattered and deserted as the 
wood is formed, are not able to concentrate their forces. But in 
animal life, there is no wood-deposit, although the whole body is 
but a composite mass of cells, all vegetable; and the power of con- 
centration of the brains of these vegetable cells results in the ani- 
mal brain as a separate part of the organism. The ascent of the 
scale toward the higher animals, and up to man himself, is attended 
by a relative increase of size of this concentrating mass of vege- 
table brains. These facts show conclusively that all life partakes 
of the same general fund of intelligence, uses it, expends it, and 
returns it to the sea of supply. 

Human life ceases at the line of the three funds ; matter, 
vitality, and intelligence. Nothing more is attainable in this 
existence, except the creation of that germ of immortality, known 
as the soul-embryo. Yet, as we have said before, it is proper to 
speak of the body by the term which is only strictly true of the 
metamorphosis. Thus it is often said that so many souls were 
killed in a railroad accident; or four hundred souls went down at 
sea. Here the body is meant. The mind is likewise referred to, 
and also the heart. Persons are described as bright souls, good 
souls, and in other similar terms. The religious sect known as 
Spiritualists believe that the vitality, which often assumes a shape 
co-extensive with the form of the body, face, features, clothing 
and all, is the soul; because it is the spirit or vital breath. The 
ancients called the soul, breath, spirit and vitality, all one and 
the same. The exact definition of spirit, is breath. They also 
called the mind the soul; the word from which we obtain our root 
adjective, psychic, being equally applicable to the mind and spirit 
idea. 

Following common usage we speak of the soul as a life 
connected with the body; as the soul departs, when we mean the 
spirit or the breath. But that grander thing, the immortal exist- 
ence, is also called the soul; and, during the remainder of this 



384 



IMMORTALITY 



chapter, we shall intend only that, whenever the word is used. 
In considering the question of metamorphosis, we advance the 
following details of fact, all. or nearly all, of which have been fully 
explained in the preceding chapters. 

1. The soul is not the vitalit}', for the latter is sometimes 
high, sometimes low, and often a mere flutter, resembling a spark 
which is likely to go out at any moment. 

2. The immortal soul, the life of Heaven, is not such a vacil- 
lating thing as that, which is strong one day, and nearly dead the 
next. 

3. The soul is not the body, nor is it co-extensive with it, 
nor lodged in any part of it. 

4. If the ear is frozen, the soul is not frozen; nor is the ear 
of the soul amputated, when that appendage is cut off. 

5. If a leg is cut off: or two legs; or an arm; or both arms; 
or all four of these limbs; the soul is not reduced to that extent. 

6. It cannot be said that a man has any less soul because he 
has less body. 

7. A woman is living on the half of one lung; having lost 
three-fourths of all her organs of respiration, known as the two 
lobes of the lungs. Yet herein is the seat of the breath, the spirit 
that leaves the body at the moment of death. 

8. That woman has no less soul merely because she has less 
of her lungs. 

9. The soul is not in the brain known as cerebrum; for all 
of the brute species, or lesser animals of intelligence, have a cere- 
brum. 

10. The soul is not in the mind, or that function of the 
cerebrum which reflects, contemplates, and reasons; for, in some 
cases, there is no mind. 

11. The idiot is one who never had mental powers. His is 
the empty brain. Does any person wish to go on record as declar- 
ing that the idiot is incapable of developing a soul? 

12. The imbecile is one who has power to reason, reflect and 
contemplate, like any human being; but who is defective in these 
operations. Is his soul an imbecile? 

13. But, you say, he will be given a sound mind hereafter. 
Well, if that is true, it is metamorphosis; and that is all we claim. 
You have proved our case for us. 

14. The great brains of the world have no more soul, on 



CREATION OF THE SOUL 



385 



account of the amount of such gray matter: nor are the weak in- 
tellects proscribed on this account. 

15. The person now sane, may some day break down mentally. 
The reason may fly; the mind go for good. You visit the unfor- 
tunate loved one in the asylum, and recall the happy days now 
fled forever. Has the misfortune of accident taken that immortal 
inheritance from that sufferer, or will eternity right the wrong? 

16. When the body sleeps, where is the soul? 

17. When the body faints, and is unconscious, where is 
the soul? 

18. When the body sleeps while a lire is approaching the 
room, and there is time to escape without harm, why will the soul, 
if there is one, stand idly by and permit the valuable life to be 
destroyed in the cruel flames? 

19. When anaesthetics have dulled the nerves, and stupefied 
the brain, what is there in that lifeless and unconscious body that 
remains for hours, and sometimes days, in helpless sleep? 

20. An unconscious animal is more alert than an uncon- 
scious man. The dog will never be overtaken by disaster during 
slumber. 

21. The mental perception is so keen in many animals that it 
will warn them of impending danger: but this is transference of 
thought or feeling. 

22. Men are sometimes able to detect the purposes of others, 
and to save themselves in time. This is transference of thought 
or feeling, otherwise called telepathy. 

23. Telepathy is never an evidence of the soul, unless it rises 
to the realm of the soul-embryo, through the power of the sub- 
conscious faculty. 

24. It is said that sin destroys the soul; that the wages of 
sin is death: that a sinner sends his soul to everlasting destruction. 
If this is true, is it fair? 

25. Sin is imperfection, and is in harmony with this age. 
The fact that it is easy to commit, and hard to avoid, is proof that 
it is natural and inherent. 

26. The claim that the natural operations of the mind and 
heart, which make the disgusting vices of life harmonize with the 
tastes of humanity, are destructive of the immortal soul, is not 
sound in logic, and is opposed by the facts of nature. 

27. That condition in which the disgusting vices of life 



386 



IMMORTALITY 



harmonize with the tastes of humanity, is a condition below the 
sub-conscious realm, and does not in any way involve the question 
of immortality, for it is on too low a plane for that consideration. 

28. It would not be fair to punish a being for sins committed 
in a state where the tastes of life invite such sins and stamp them 
as pleasures. A subsequent principle meets, the exigencies of the 
situation. 

[ —673— ] 

The soul embryo is a creation, like the seed of man. 

This is the 673d Ealston Principle, and presents a truth that 
belongs to the solution of the most difficult problem connected with 
this life. There are, in nature, but two acts of creation; one is the 
making of the procreative seed, the other is the making of the 
soul-embryo. They represent the two extremes of earthly exist- 
ence. AVe commence the body with a miracle; we end it with a 
miracle, unless our life is refunded and re-resolved to the condi- 
tions that preceded it. 

An act of creation is not a process in evolution, for that 
holds one degree to another; it is not a metamorphosis, for that is 
change of a decisive nature. To create is to start new; to cut off 
all origin of the thing created, and give it the stamp of the creator, 
or the creative mind, or purpose. The seed of man, like the seed 
of vegetation, or of any lower life, is the result of a direct act of 
creation. It is like its maker. It contains the summary of all 
that is held in the personality and ancestry of its maker. Thus the 
germ of a human being is the collective life of that being, including 
the thoughts, hopes, whims, characteristics, taints, defects, diseases 
and faculties, in use or disuse, of that being, with every tendency 
.and variation proportionately marked and conveyed in color of 
manner and method; besides all which, it adds the summary of all 
the ancestors as far as the inherited influences have been trans- 
mitted. This collection is held in the microscopic nucleus of the 
seed; and nothing is missing. That seed may be transferred to the 
womb of woman: the father may go away, never to return: and 
that small world will develop in the nucleus, increase in the em- 
bryo, enlarge in the foetus, and come forth in the child, holding all 
the multiplicity of conditions that were entrusted to the tiny germ, 
subject only to the influence that the mother may happen to exert 
upon its growth. 



CREATION OF THE SOUL 



387 



Some maintain that the seed is developed from an inner 
seed within itself, which must have an inner seed of its own, and so 
on without limit. Such a theory would be equal to pronouncing 
an endless succession hid in the germ, or saying that ten thousand 
million times ten thousand million steps are locked up in a point 
too fine to be seen under the most powerful microscope. This 
could not be possible, for the following reasons: 

1. The ultimate original seed would control the whole, and 
give us an animal at the beginning of the race of life, instead of 
transmitting the image of the parent at the present end of the 
succession. 

2. The divisible theory of atoms cannot stand; for matter 
must find a limit somewhere, even though the divisions are carried 
through an enormous number of quintillions. 

3. The theory of infinite succession would be the theory of 
an inexhaustible divisibility of matter, and could not be maintained 
in fact, as the very idea is a self-contradiction. 

4. To carry in one germ the many diverse characteristics of 
a parent, must require a multitude of intelligent nuclei involving 
atoms, particles and molecules in great abundance: and this neces- 
sity would prevent an endless succession of ancestry in the germ- 
parentage. 

5. The immediate seed of the parent contains a multiple 
collection of his own present life, which could not occur if it did 
not emanate from himself ; therefore, he is in some way the creator 
of it. 

6. Under the age of puberty, he is unable to produce seed: 
and the only evidence of its prospective presence is in the organs 
and anatomy of reproduction. They are empty. 

7. The seed preceding orgasm are infertile. The extraction 
prior to that act of the fluid of procreation, and its application to 
its mate will not prove capable of union 'with the ovum of the 
female. The loss of the same fluid is a close approach to orgasm, 
but no part of it will fertilize. 

8. The fluid that escapes through loss in sleep is infertile; 
but the same fluid that is lost by an orgasm attending a lascivious 
dream, is fertile. The difference is in the fact that there is the 
act of orgasm. 

9. Every experiment that can be utilized shows that the act 
referred to is a real creation, making a human being out of matter: 



388 



IMMORTALITY 



in fact out of the dust of the earth. The fiat occurs at the precise 
moment or instant of the climax. 

Similar to this creation is the orgasm of the soul-embryo; 
and humanity is the loins in which this germ is produced. The 
same rules apply. As there are men capable of becoming parents, 
who never use the faculty, so there are beings capable of creating 
a soul-embryo who do not do so. As the seed of reproduction is 
incubated in its womb-world, and there prepared to dwell in an- 
other and larger horizon of existence, so the soul-embryo is estab- 
lished in this body, preparatory to its fullfledged life hereafter. 
But the two creations remain parallel in other respects: the seed of 
human life, created in the loins, develops in the uterus, and takes 
on an independent existence in the full open world; so the seed 
of the soul, created by the human being as the home of the embryo, 
passes on to a state corresponding to the foetus, or advanced em- 
bryo, and later on becomes the being destined for immortality. 

Any details that would fill out the frame-work of this 
metamorphosis, must be pure speculation. In the human seed, the 
metamorphosis occurs in an act by which the ball, or ovum, con- 
taining only cell-structures, is turned into a human foetus; for the 
change is full and remarkable. In all its after history, up to the 
point where delivery brings it into the world as a child, it remains 
the same. The foetus is the lesser child; but the foetus is a meta- 
morphosis of the ovum. In fact the egg of a dog and of a human 
being, even after they have grown for some days, cannot be dis- 
tinguished from each other; but the metamorphosis changes one 
to the beast, the other to humanity. There are two similar or 
parallel steps in soul-development: the first is the embryo state, 
which is related to the seed part or creative stage; the second is 
that which follows the change. 

1. The embryo is a creation. 

2. The soul is a metamorphosis. 

1. The creation of the embryo occurs in earthly life. 

2. The metamorphosis occurs after death. 

That the embryo is created in this life has been partly 
proved in a preceding chapter, and will be further examined in 
later pages. That the metamorphosis occurs after death, has been 
proved in this chapter, and is sustained by the fact that there is 
no use for a soul until after death. It would be absolutely helpless 
as far as this life is concerned, and would either be in the way, 



CREATION OF THE SOUL 



389 



or would make the body perfect, and so unfit it for the contamina- 
tion of such a world as this. We find ourselves face to face with 
the problem that seeks to settle the question whether or not there 
is a metamorphosis. Any close thinking will drive the mind to 
one of two propositions: 

1. Either that there is a metamorphosis after death; 

2. Or that the next life is a higher and perfect state evolved 
out of the present state. 

If the former proposition is true, then persons now living 
may become immortal. If the latter proposition is true, then those 
now living will return to their common funds, and reappear as 
other beings, as distinct from their predecessors as an apple of 
1898 is distinct from the identity of an apple of 1897. Nor will 
there be memory of this life, if the future is to come solely by 
evolution. It may be true that some of those now living will pass 
through a metamorphosis to an immortal being, and that others 
will pass on by the process of evolution to the perfect state. 

[~674-] 
Evolution is annihilation. 

This is the 674th Ralston Principle. It is a law, and a fact as 
well. It presents an interesting discussion involving many of the 
creeds, beliefs, notions, fads, w r hims, and other flights of construc- 
tive fancy that engaged the attention of the ancient philosophers, 
and have survived to this day. There is so much meat in the nut 
that its supply seems like a well-spring of invention. We need 
take but a few moments for its consideration. 

The transmigration of souls is the first of the problems 
associated with the onward progress of the earth and its life. It is 
the doctrine of metamorphosis. The soul is described as an im- 
mortal essence, and is supposed to pass into successive bodily forms, 
both human and animal. All antiquity abounds in the literature 
of this doctrine; and it engrosses the religious belief of a great 
part of the world to-day. But where it touches higher civilization, 
it gives way to the facts of science, which seem to cloak it with 
the garment of impossibility. Pythagoras was the great Greek 
expounder of the doctrine of the transmigration of the soul; yet 
it is alleged that he derived his ideas from Egypt. 

The ancient idea of immortality had its origin among 
the people of the Nile. Herodotus (ii. 123) declares that the 



390 



IMMORTALITY 



Egyptians were the first to propound the theory that the human 
soul is immortal, and that when the body of any one perishes it 
enters into some other creature that may be born ready to receive 
it; and that, when it has gone the round of all created forms on 
land, in the water, and in the air, then it once more enters the 
human body born for it; and this cycle of existence for the soul 
takes place in three thousand years. Plato, dealing with the same 
question, extends the cycle to ten thousand years, which he sub- 
divides into periods of one thousand years each, after which the 
soul undergoes judgment, and is admitted to everlasting happiness 
or condemned to punishment. 

Pythagoras was the master mind in the building up of 
this doctrine and its promulgation through the highest ages of 
civilization in Greece; and from his teachings, all the Caucasian 
world became converts, in greater or less degree, to the theory of 
the transmigration of the soul. He declared that he himself had 
been Euphorbus, the son of Panthus, in the time of the Trojan 
War, and had successively inhabited other human bodies, the 
actions of all which he remembered. He cautioned all persons to 
avoid eating animals, or any part of them, even excluding the eggs 
of fowls. The Egyptians were examples of this exclusion of meat 
from their diet; and they went so far as to preserve the mummies 
of cats, crocodiles and other animals, believing them to have been 
the residence of souls; and thinking that others would occupy 
them in the future. Menander said, "Make me after death any- 
thing rather than a man, for he is the only creature that prospers 
by injustice;" and he preferred to pass into either a goat, sheep, 
dog, or horse. 

The argument by which the ancients arrived at the 
conclusion that the soul passed on from one body to another, is 
a curious piece of logic; and, although clearly erroneous, it co- 
incides in part with two important facts. For this reason we will 
produce it in condensed form. It is a logical deduction from the 
primitive ideas about the nature of the soul; and, had those ideas 
been correct, the conclusions reached must have stood to the end 
of time. They said that the difference between a dead body and 
a living body was that the latter breathed, while the former did not, 
and it was observed that as soon as the breath left the body, not 
only did warmth and motion cease, but the flesh began to decay. 
Life, therefore, was a breath. Hence the words animus, anima 



CREATION OF THE SOUL 



391 



and sfiritus. But breath was air. and air was eternal and im- 
perishable. Therefore the air which left the body was the soul; 
and, as this did not perish at the dissolution of the body, it must 
have returned to the general fund from which it came. It fol- 
lowed that, from the countless millions of "souls' 5 emancipated 
from bodies in all time, and still flitting about invisibly in space, 
the air must literally swarm with souls — a doctrine taught by 
Pythagoras. Hence any creature, human or bestial, that first drew 
the breath of life, might swallow a soul: that is, take in the breath 
that was exhaled on the death of another. They believed that the 
identical particles of air would find their way to another body just 
born. This idea is the foundation of their mistake; for matter, 
vitality and intellect all go out and lose their identity by mingling 
with the general funds. The ancients believed in three funds, as we 
do to-day; and thus coincided with the acknowledged science of later 
eras. One was the fund of matter; although the Egyptians sought 
to prevent the return of a specific body by making a mummy of it. 
All, however, agreed that there was a fund of vitality, or vital air; 
also a fund of intellect, which they called plironcsis. They did 
not go far enough to see that a fund must be a general ocean, from 
which individuals are made, and to which their identities are 
eventually lost. In believing that a vitality could return to its 
fund, and still retain its identity, they made the mistake that com- 
pelled the deduction that such identity must be rehabilitated; and 
from this simple mistake there arose the whole doctrine of the 
transmigration of the soul. Some Hebrews and Christians believe 
in the same principle; for they think that the identical body, mind, 
vitality and essence will be revived, though in another world. We 
can easily see how the material of the body may go into all kinds 
of life. The soldiers of Waterloo nurtured the fields of waving 
corn in the years that followed. The particles of their bodies 
actually entered into the corn, which was eaten by animals and 
human beings; and hence became parts of other persons. This 
was transmigration, but so diverse and scattered that all identity 
was completely destroyed. The fact is well established that the 
vitality of man does not pass into any other life, except in a general 
mix-up. It is clearly proved that there is no such thing in nature 
as the transmigration of the soul. 

Theosophy next claims our attention. This is not so 
ancient a doctrine as it is said to be. As Ave see it to-day. in its 



392 



IMMORTALITY 



modern development, it is but a recrudescence of a belief widely 
proclaimed in the twelfth century, and held to in some form by 
many barbaric tribes. The attempt to imbue it with the beliefs 
of the Hindoos and Brahmans is purely artificial. In its most 
recent phases, it teaches the possession of a variety of bodies, and a 
succession of existences; but in its purer state/ it taught a supposed 
knowledge of God through special inspiration. All that is valu- 
able in its code, may be found in the works of Swedenborg. Much 
that is purely speculative, assumes to be founded upon the essence 
of God imparted as a peculiar favor to certain devotees. The 
most recent beliefs coincide with clairvoyance and spiritualism; 
although this is denied most strenuously by theosophists. They 
claim to be able to send one of their bodies to other persons, and 
thus to spend a pleasant evening thousands of miles away, then 
come back again in good shape. Herein we see a possible use of 
a mental faculty, the mysticism of which leads to the idea that it 
is evidence of a spirit life. Then the theosophists believe that they 
live again on earth; one of the leaders of that doctrine even preach- 
ing that a certain other great leader, who recently died, is alive 
again in the body of a beautiful boy in India. There is no fact 
in science, and no respectable dogma in any civilized religion, that 
sustains any of the theories of theosophy; hence they will rise and 
fall with the tides of barbarism on the one hand, and the effusive 
misjudgment of shallow minds on the other. 

Another theory associated with the idea of evolution is 
that all the members of the human family must return to the 
earth, and continue to be re-born, not as individuals, but in new 
mixtures, until the time comes when they will appear in that 
period of advancement which is to be perfection, and life is free 
from death. This would restore the identity of each. The theory 
is not maintainable, for there is no fact to connect the two ends 
of this leap in time and progress. There is still another claim — 
that the only race which will be upon earth in the age of perfec- 
tion, is the top stratum of humanity at that time; but this means 
annihilation for all who have lived, and all who may live, up to 
the era when nature shall have worked out its own immaculate 
purity; for to live again in parts and particles of thousands of 
others, is not to live at all. but to aid others to come into being. 



CREATION OF THE SOUL 



393 



[ 675 J 

Loss of memory is annihilation. 

This is the 675th Ealston Principle. It presents a law, as 
well as a fact. If a man, at any age, loses consciousness of himself, 
and his memory leaves him absolutely, the fact that he still lives 
is of no consequence to that portion of his history which has been 
utterly obliterated. Still more would the change work annihila- 
tion, if his friends and the scenes of life about him were as com- 
pletely changed. Victor Hugo was of the belief that he had lived 
several times before; but he cited the case of deficient human 
memory, which could not go back to the early years of this life, 
to account for the fact that he could not remember his other 
existences on earth. 

Let us suppose it to be true that a man now living will, 
after death, be born into another body; that John Smith, of Ohio, 
in 1890, will be James Brown, of Kentucky, in 1950; and that 
Brown will not know that he was ever Smith, nor Smith ever 
know that he becomes Brown. In such case he is really annihi- 
lated; for he will have no memory of his parents, his wife, his 
children, his friends, or his associate pleasures. A line as sharp 
as the abyss of oblivion cuts him off from the other life. To know 
that he is one day to become Brown, is just as satisfactory as to 
know that, when he dies, his neighbor across the way is to carry 
on his existence for him. He has no interest in any such shifting 
of his identity. Man holds on to life with greater zeal in propor- 
tion as that life has yielded him pleasure of the lasting kind, and 
associations have endeared him to places and friends. The fatal 
stroke that sends a loved one into the black realm, opens his heart 
and then his mind to the inquiry, if he will ever meet that dear 
companion again; and it would assuredly be no comfort to him to 
know that he would come on earth at some future time as Jones, 
and his cherished friend would appear as Williams, strangers to 
each other, with an insane vacuity of mind as to all previous exist- 
ence or acquaintanceship. Thus we see that the loss of memory 
is annihilation. 

Some persons are perfectly willing to accept the theory 
of a loss of memory, if there is a hope of immortal existence. Ac- 
cording to their argument, to live again is grand enough of itself, 
even if there is no memory of this life. There are those who 
would prefer to have all knowledge of earth cut oft', on account of 



394 



IMMORTALITY 



the miseries, sufferings and shortcomings involved in this imperfect 
probation. They cite the case of the mother whose son, erring 
through evil influences over which he had no control, loses his 
life on the gallows, and plunges the family name in disgrace; and 
say that, if the question were put to her maternal heart, whether 
she would prefer to know him in Heaven as a murderer, or to pass 
out of all memories of earth, and meet him in the better land as 
a stranger, yet be bound to him by all the ties of affection that 
could possibly exist in the knowledge of their former relationship, 
she would seek the latter as the more satisfactory. A man kills 
his wife. A son, who loves both parents, is the only person who 
sees the deed. He goes upon the witness stand, and tells the 
truth. The father is executed. All three meet in Heaven. The 
wife greets the husband that killed her. The husband greets the 
wife whom he slew. The boy greets the mother who was mur- 
dered. The father greets the boy whose testimony wrung his 
neck. The boy greets the father who killed the mother whom he 
loved. What kind of triangular family gathering will this be? 
Unless knowledge is mercifully denied them all, the boy will take 
a keen interest in the neck around which the rope was tightened; 
the husband will hardly be able to keep his eyes from the horrid 
wound over the heart; and the wife will study with ever renewed 
interest the motions of the hand that wielded the weapon; and this 
will be true even if new bodies are given them, for imagination 
will enhance every detail of the affair in the absence of the old 
marks. 

Again it will be embarrassing in Heaven, if some friends 
are absent. You say the murderer will not be admitted to that 
place. If so, then that loved son, weak through the frailties of 
human nature, is either destroyed and annihilated, or else is pun- 
ished for a while, and then consigned to the peace of oblivion, 
or is eternally punished. One of these three things must be true, 
in case he does not survive as a member of the Heavenly band. 
No matter which is true, he is unfortunately dealt with. This 
sad mishap must be known to the loving mother, and her heart- 
strings will be lacerated by the crowding volume of memory that 
momentarily recites to her the gloomy fate of the boy whom she 
cherished on earth. There will come up in the train of events that 
no mother can erase from her mind, the baby hours of innocence, 
the prattling child, the confiding youth who knelt nightly at her 



CREATION OF THE SOUL 



395 



side and lisped his evening prayer, and then the young man who 
went out into the wide world to do battle on the principles that 
she had instilled into his heart; finally the crime; and each day 
that mother in Heaven will live over, in intensified fullness, the 
weeks and months of anguish, until all was over. Now, to think 
that his tormented life is writhing in the vortex of eternal punish- 
ment, amid wailing and gnashing of teeth, is sure to make her joy 
in Heaven as funereal as skilful invention can suggest. If she 
retains memory, she will be miserable. If she has no memory, 
she will not be the same personage. If she receives the felicitous 
compromise of having all memory of the bad wiped out, and all 
memory of the good retained, she will be as blindly happy as the 
mother-cat who loved her four kittens most tenderly; and mourned 
bitterly when two were drowned, but became perfectly blissful 
again at the discovery that two strange kittens, whom she supposed 
to be her own, were substituted for those who had gone down to 
a watery grave. In all these queries, there are problems of no 
small moment. 



CHAPTER XXX. 



PHILOSOPHY OF THE SOUL. 



[ 676 ] 




HE soul is immaculate whiteness. 

This is the 676th Ralston Principle. By it is meant 
that such a degree of purity is meant in the onward ten- 



dency of matter and life toward its ultimate end. The 
query may be made, what is there in the perfection of the future 
that needs or suggests moral purity? The answer is, nothing. 
Morality and religion are earthly matters, and attach themselves 
only to a state of imperfection. If there is a Heaven, in it we shall 
hear nothing of honesty, for everything there is honest; we shall 
hear nothing of morality, for everything there is moral; we shall 
hear nothing of religion, for religion is a rule of conduct prescribed 
for defective natures, and there are none in Pleaven. It may be 
well to take it for granted that goodness is not in any sense to be 
involved in the considerations of life there, for it will be attained 
in the uplifting of all existence that is carried so far. 

Whiteness is the ultimate end of matter, as well as the 
final phase of life. It is said that the sun is losing its heat because 
it is now a yellow orb, whereas it was once a white orb. This is 
the generally accepted theory among astronomers. They show 
certain white stars in the sky, which they say are newer than the 
others; as the most intense heat comes from whiteness. This may 
be true. We assume that it is, and so adopt the views of those who 
have spent a lifetime in the investigations of their science; yet 
it may be true that whiteness is an ultimate result, rather than a 
beginning of the life of each star. There are some reasons for so 
believing. In the first place, all the stars must have been made 
at the same time, unless creation is now in process of originating 
sun centers of systems; and this is not sustained by observation. 
If all stars were made at the same time, all would have lost their 
white heat; as size would not have affected this primary change 
in the lapse of time that we know must have already occurred. 
A stronger fact is that which is seen in the nature and condition 

(396 



PHILOSOPHY OF THE SOUL 



397 



of the sun, which throws out more clouds and opaque smoke the 
more it is agitated. For this reason, as well as for the other, it 
is not unlikely that whiteness is the inherent character of a star, 
whose terrific combustion has cleared away a part of the color 
due to excessive agitation. 

It is not possible to say that this is true ; but there is cer- 
tainly more reason for so believing, than for the theory that the 
new star or sun has commenced existence perfectly white. It must 
be remembered that the astronomers who so believe, also adopt 
to a certain extent the nebular hypothesis, which makes all suns 
and orbs begin with a gas; and this method of cooling is highly 
contradictory of the theory of whiteness when the sun is new. If 
that is correct, then the sun is to continually change color until 
it turns black. The doctrine would make the negroes the highest 
product of civilization; and this is challenged by the fact that 
Caucasians, in the mixture of races, kill off by the law of survival 
their miscegenated blacks. In other words, the trend of nature 
is toward the supremacy of the white race. The blacks stand 
to-day for the lowest, most barbarous, and most imbecile of all 
humanity; while the browns are above, the reds next above, then 
the yellows, then the whites. Everybody admits that the Japanese, 
who are the highest of all the yellow race, are not far below the 
white Caucasians. Of course the last named are not absolutely 
white, but they are as nearly so as it is possible for any human 
to be through whose veins red blood pours. Not only in skin, but 
in brain, heart and morals, the Caucasians are the whitest people 
on earth. . Their civilization is the whitest, so is their education, 
religion and government. Color is not a cause; this we do not 
pretend to claim; but it is an attendant. 

Certain conclusions are clearly reached through well 
established facts, and these are to be relied upon as unalterable. 
Certain other conclusions are assumed but not assured; and they 
may be subject to belief or rejection. It is true that whiteness is 
to be evolved out of matter; but this does not imply that all matter 
is to be white. The beauty of color, and all its Mendings, must 
ever remain a part of the delights of life. That which we believe 
will be white, is the inhabitant of the future; but our principle 
goes further, and says that the soul is immaculate whiteness. This 
may represent a condition only; it may stand for purity; it may 
mean perfection. That this position is proved, may be ascertained 



398 



IMMORTALITY 



by collecting together the themes of the preceding chapters, and 
re-examining them. It is the only part of the journey that 
remains to be traveled. It is the old simile of the moving 
train, with track ahead, yet untraversed. All the past journey 
has been steadily tending toward perfection, which is whiteness; 
and what remains must continue to grow in that direction. We 
know that there is a track ahead. We know that the train is 
moving. We know that every advance comes nearer to the 
whiteness of perfection. Therefore we know that the ultimate 
goal is what we already see stamped upon the sky of promise. 

Next comes the question as to what connection there is 
between soul and matter. This is easily answered by invincible 
facts. First, the rock of the earth; second, the vegetation of the 
earth; and here it might have been asked, What was the earth 
made for? Is not rock the only substance? If so, and there is 
to be progress, why should it not be confined to rock? Why should 
not an improved condition of mere matter be the all-inspiring 
theme of creation, and white marble the goal of all existence? 
Is not marble the cold statue of humanity, the frozen life of man? 
The puzzle is, if there is to be an advance, why should a new ele- 
ment of progress be added? Vitality, appearing in the crumbled 
rock, was the real improvement; and vegetation is a decided leap 
forward in the crude progress of primitive earth. The next 
problem arises. The mere substance thought, if it thought at all, 
that its own condition should have been improved until it was 
white, clear and beautiful; the admired of God; but, as it was 
decided that vegetation was a step beyond rock, then the question 
might have arisen, Why should not all progress be confined to 
making vegetation as perfect and beautiful as the heart of Heaven 
could wish? See the possibilities! The leaf, the flower, the glory 
of foliage and cluster, and the picture of harmonic colors set against 
the sky; what more could God need to afford Him pleasure? But 
it seems that the beauties of earth were not for God alone. The 
problem deepened when the rock, that had been bettered in vege- 
tation, was now out-classed in moving life. The tree and' plant 
stood still. The animal had consciousness, and went from place 
to place. 

When this third phase of creation was apparent, it must 
have dawned on the mind of an outside observer, had there been 
one, that matter was not the end in view. Vegetation was vital 



PHILOSOPHY OF THE SOUL 



399 



earth; inanimate. Animal life was animate vegetation. The goal, 
whose attainment was fixed in the purpose of all this progress, was 
not material; for every step was getting rapidly away from that 
idea. So must we. The drift has been leaving substance behind, 
and pressing on to something that is to become independent of 
matter. First, all substance, rock; second, life in vegetation; third, 
life and animation in the animal kingdom; and fourth, life, ani- 
mation and thought in man. The past is the key to the future. 
No sound mind would reject the claim that the fifth must be some- 
thing more than substance, something more than life, something 
more than animation, something more than thought; and that 
something, no matter what it is, must be soul. We do not care 
what it is; we call it soul, in any event. We know that it is beyond 
thought, and whatever is beyond thought is soul. There is no 
getting away from this conclusion. No fact in all the universe is 
better established than the solid certainty of the soul's existence 
as a part of the immediate future. A cannon ball shot five feet 
from its target, and impelled directly to it at a velocity of a mile 
a second, is no surer of hitting that target than is the aim of time 
seeking the mark of ultimate progress — the immortal soul — cer- 
tain of success in its accurately sustained flight. 

The soul is the essence of God. 

This is the 677th Ealston Principle. We have already clearly 
shown that the fifth step in the order of advance is one step above 
thought; and we said that, whatever that might prove to be, we 
proposed to call it soul. That it must be something better than 
the best thought, was a conclusion from which there could be no 
escape. We now declare it to be the essence of God, and our 
reasons are these: First, the next advance beyond the mental era, 
imperfect as this seems, must be the soul-era. for the next step 
must be perfection. But if another step, or several, may be 
decreed, the principle is just the same. Perfection of life must be 
reached sooner or later. 

Such perfection cannot be attained in the divisions 
below the fifth. We know this because we have all the divisions 
with us. Eock is the first: and even the Parian marble is not the 
ideal of earthly progress. Vegetation is the second; with all its 
changes, even under the cultivating hand of man aided by science. 



400 



IMMORTALITY 



it produces only the shortlived flower that perishes, or the timber 
that yields to the pressure of time. Animals are the third, and 
they are not the end of all creation. Thus we see that substance 
or rock, life or vegetation, and animation or the brute species, are 
not possible of perfection. We have all these with us; and thus we 
know. Next is the fourth; the thought division, the era of human- 
ity. It is the acme of progress up to the present time, yet is not 
perfect. We even have with us the anti-racials, that their more 
serious shortcomings may remain as permanent examples of the 
futility of attempting perfection in any department of this men- 
tal era. 

We have clearly shown that God has exerted the opera- 
tion of special design in the past elevation of earthly life; and this 
proves that He is at work in the present, and will so continue in 
the future. Therefore the next step must be nearer to Him than 
this, and as the next step, view it as we may, must be soul, that 
can only be the essence of the Creator, as it is closer and nearer 
than any other life. The stream, rising to its head, must reach 
God. All progress tends that way. Therefore the soul is the 
essence of God. To show how this argument affects the plain, 
matter-of-fact, hard-hided infidel, we append the following conver- 
sation, which took place between an atheist and the author; and 
it must not be lost sight of, that the infidel was a man of mature 
years, of the finest education, and the ripest mental powers: 

Author. — So you do not believe in the existence of a supreme 
being, called God? 

Infidel. — No. 

A. — Nor in the existence of the sonl ? 
I.— No. 

A. — Nor in immortal life? 
I.— No. 

A. — Are your beliefs so fixed that they could not be changed 
by facts? In other words, is your mind so stiffened by the cal- 
careous deposits of age that it has lost all flexibility, and is thus 
compelled to cling to ideas already lodged there, having no power 
to alter even its false opinions? 

I. — Your inquiry implies that I may not know my own mind. 

A. — That is what I wish to ascertain. If you cannot change 
it, I would not pretend to argue with you. 



PHILOSOPHY OF THE SOUL 



401 



I. — I yielded yesterday a point that I had maintained for 
thirty years. This shows that I am still searching for truth. 

A. — I wish you to examine certain facts; to lay aside all 
opinions as far as possible in such examination, and to render an 
impartial verdict, as though you were a juror or referee in a legal 
contest. 

I. — I am satisfied that I can do that. But I must know the 
facts as such. I do not propose to accept assertions as facts, unless 
they are capable of proof. Here we may quarrel. 

A. — Perhaps there are some things that are so well known that 
you will accept them as proved facts. 

I. — There ought to be many; but they are rarely used in argu- 
ments of this kind. They are not favorable to the claim of those 
who seek to prove the existence of a God and a soul. 

A. — I will ask you to state the facts as you understand them. 
First, what was the earliest condition of the earth? 

I. — No one knows. The theories are useless. No one knows 
anything about the origin of this planet, or its earliest condition.. 
Now, do they? 

A. — No. Yet, was there an early condition of which any- 
thing is known? 

I. — Only after the earth had been shaped. It was then a rock.. 
There was no evidence of a Creator in its barren emptiness. It 
was a rough rock, a thing of stone. 

A. — Did a change take place? 

I. — Yes, life appeared. 

A. — What kind of life; man, brute or vegetable? I mean at 

first. 

I. — The first life was altogether of a vegetable kind. 
A. — Is that a fact or a mere deduction from the reasoning of 
science? 

I. — It is the best kind of a fact, for it is seen in the earth's 
structure. No one disputes it. To my mind it has done more to 
demolish that story in Genesis than — 

A. — We are leaving the subject. What kind of life followed 
vegetation; brute creation, or man? 

I —The lower animals came; but not for a long lapse of 
geological time. Such life was quite apart from vegetation in 
its origin. 

A. — Then, how came it? 



402 



IMMORTALITY 



I. — Xo one knows. All that is known, is that it came and 
is here. 

A. — "Was man here then? 

I. — Xot when the first animals appeared. The dawn of the 
human race cannot extend back more than a half million years. 
For my part, I do not believe it extends back one-fourth of that 
time. But I know that animals were on earth many millions of 
years before any trace of man appeared. 

A. — How about the savage prehistoric races from which the 
human family is said to have sprung; when did they appear? 

I. — Oh, I include them in the human race. It is well known 
that no part of that race, however inferior, was on earth prior to 
half a million years ago. 

A. — What did man come out of? 

I. — I do not know. Xo one has any knowledge on the subject. 
Theories are not satisfactory foundations on which to build a 
scheme of immortality. 

A. — Let us review your facts. Is it proper to speak of the 
first known condition of the earth, when it was all rock, as the era 
of matter? 

I. — Yes, that is the only fact known of that era. It was all 
material. But if there was a God, why was such a dead world 
launched out into space? Why not have given it life and evidence 
of the divine power, if such a force existed? 

A. — You say it is correct to speak of the first era as rock. Is 
it proper to speak of the next as the era of life? 

I. — You mean the vegetable era? It was life ever onward. 
Xife includes man, brute and plant. 

A. — In distinction from the rock era, is it proper to speak of 
the next as the life era? 

I. — I do not know what you are seeking to establish; so I will 
guard myself, and admit that the next era was that of vegetable 
life. I will not accept the term life unqualified. 

A. — Well, if the first was the rock era, and the second was 
the vegetable life era, is it proper to speak of the third as the ani- 
mated era? 

I. — There is the same trouble as before. The animated era, 
as you call it, includes all that followed its opening; but it did 
not include vegetation, for that is inanimate life. Why not say 
this: the first era was matter: the second, inanimate life: the third, 



PHILOSOPHY OF THE SOUL 



403 



animate life — but that goes further — I think I see now what you 
have in mind — matter included all that followed; life included all 
that followed; animal life included all that followed. The thought 
is a grand one, and is certainly true. I never arranged those facts 
in that way. 

A. — What followed the era of lower animate life? 

I. — The higher species of animals; the intelligent brutes. 

A. — What next? 

I. — Man himself. 

A. — What is the chief fact in the era of humanity? 
I. — Mind certainly is. 

A. — Is this order correct: rock, vegetation, animals, man? 
I.— Yes. 

A. — Is this correct: matter, life, animation, thought? 
I.— Yes. 

A. — Can you say that there has been anywhere in the history 
of the earth, a retrogression, or turning down of the hand of 
progress? 

I. — Xo. It is well known that all things have steadily tended 
upward. 

A. — Has such tendency ceased? 

L — EFo. It is even more active now than ever. 

A. — Is there room for improvement? 

I. — Yes, plenty of room, everywhere. 

A. — Is it proper to refer to such room as opportunity ahead? 
I.— Yes. 

A. — Is it proper to refer to the present onward movement of 
everything as an advancing train of progress ? 
I.— Yes. 

A. — Suppose you were on a train that was ascending an in- 
clined track; that the train was moving, and there was plenty of 
track ahead; that you started in blackness, came up out of a rocky 
cave, passed through a region of wild and tangled vegetation that 
improved with every mile of progress; then came upon a still higher 
slope, where the lowest animals appeared; then arose further into 
the better realm of animal life, with the blackness far behind, and 
an ever brightening light shedding greater hope upon the journey; 
then thoughtful men commanded the next zone through which 
you passed, and mind surmounted blind instinct; now suppose that 
all these grades are met with in your journey, but that distance 



404 



IMMORTALIT Y 



alone shuts out your view of what is ahead, because your vision 
is limited; yet remembering that every condition has improved 
from the beginning to the present time; that the blackness has 
gradually changed to brightness, and the light is growing white; 
that the train is moving, and there is track farther ahead; what 
is your candid opinion of the situation? 

I. — It is most encouraging. 

A. — Are any statements overdrawn? 

I. — No. 

A. — Is the present era a part of a moving train of progress? 
I. — Yes, most assuredly. 

A. — Has the improvement been so steady from the low and 
black past, and so persistently upward to a high and bright present, 
that a continuance of the journey is probable? 

I. — Probable is not the word. You have made it a fact. 

A. — Is it a fact that this uplifting of everything will end in 
hell or oblivion, or nothingness? 

I. — No; such an end is impossible. It cannot be. 

A. — Where will it end? 

I. — I do not know; but, I see now what I have never had 
presented to me before, that a new life must be reached. It is 
matter, vegetation, animals, mind, and something beyond. 

A. — Is mind able to meet and carry that new life? 

I. — No; it must be something beyond. 

A. — What can it be? 

I. — I do not know. I am sure it will leave man, and yet be 
a part of him. 

A.— Why so? 

I. — I will tell you what I see clearly. It has just dawned upon 
me as a necessity to fit the facts, and it is possible that the idea 
will be new to you. It is this: vegetation was widely different from 
rock, yet was composed in part of it, and was dependent upon it. 
Animal life was widely distinct from vegetation, yet built up of 
it. Do you see the weight of this fact? Then man was made up 
of animal life, yet quite separate from it. The something beyond, 
which I do not care to name, must be made up of man as a basis, 
yet a separate being in every respect; as a plant is separate from a 
rock, a fish from a plant, and a man from a fish. 

A. — I made the comparison of a moving train up an inclined 
track. Do you agree with me in the correctness of this com- 
parison? 



PHILOSOPHY OF THE SOUL 



405 



I. — I have tried to find a defect in it. I am compelled to 
accept every part as true, for so it is. By track I presume you 
mean the course of destiny. 

A. — Yes. Is there such a track? 

I. — The facts prove it. 

A. — Was it laid by accident, or design? 

I. — I cannot answer. At least not now. 

A. — Who laid that track? 

I. — God, if it was laid by design. 

A. — One thing more. Is it proper to speak of that "some- 
thing/' which you term a life beyond man and mind, as the soul, 
made up of humanity as a basis, but quite different from it in 
reality? Is soul the correct term? 

I. — It makes no difference what name you give it. Yet, if 
we follow the law of nature, it could not be this body, nor a spirit 
departed from this body; but a life above the human body, taking 
the latter as a basis only. With such restrictions, soul is the 
proper word, or as fit as any. 

A. — You say God laid that track, if it was laid by design. 
What do you mean by God? 

I. — I was careless in the use of the word. What I really 
mean to say, is that there must be a superior being controlling 
the destiny of existence. This I see clearly now; though I never 
did before. It may be proper to apply the word God to that 
being. Words are merely names, and names cannot make or 
change facts. 

A. — If there is a God, and an upward tendency controlled by 
Him, what would you say is the goal of that tendency? 

I. — It must be Godward, if your premises are true. 

A. — What, then, would be the nature of that higher life that 
we have agreed to call the soul? 

I. — I do not know. How can a complete mystery be solved 
in this life? 

Integrity is perfection. 

This is the 678th Ealston Principle. It is a law founded upon 
the purpose of nature in the destiny that lies ahead of present 
existence. The word means wholeness, completeness, or an un- 
impaired state; and, in its secondary application, is made to mean 



406 



IMMORTALITY 



honesty. While, as we have stated, religion and morality are not 
considered in a life of perfection, they are stepping-stones in the 
progress toward that life. Religion is a rule of conduct, and 
should have for its purpose the attainment of that completion of 
the construction of life that makes defects unknown. Morality 
is the proper use of a life growing better. 

The past is as much a struggle of the devil to get through 
the limitations that surround him, as it is an effort of the elements 
of good to surmount its barriers. For this reason it may appear 
that both influences are to rise to higher planes; but it must not 
be forgotten that evil did not become mentally active until good 
came forth in the human family. The vegetable kingdom has its 
weeds and its fruits, to be sure; and its foods and poisons; so that 
the good and bad influences were blindly at work from the start, 
if they existed then. The animals were savage and ugly; and 
there were millions of years when no peaceful sound was heard on 
earth. The bestial was the devil, and it triumphed; but mind was 
not at work. The countless reptiles and venomous snakes that 
now threaten man, may not have made their appearance then; for 
they seem to live more to slay human beings than the lower ani- 
mals. It was when the good had risen to the stature of manhood 
that the devil's dishonesty appeared in its most subtle force. 

We call all that dishonest which lacks perfection, in the 
sense that it is not completed; it wants integrity. But any course 
of conduct that seeks to maintain the state of imperfection is 
likewise dishonest. One is a defective condition arising from lack 
of completion, the other is a deliberate method originating in the 
mind of evil, and having an evil source, intended to prevent a 
perfect state. This is mental, and is dishonest. It includes all 
the wickedness that can be conceived, planned or executed in this 
or any life. Here are two parallel defects that may be seen in 
every individual. Xo man can hope to attain perfection in this 
life, for it is an age of incompletion. This is the defective side 
of the question. In addition to that deficiency is a direct purpose 
at work to pull him down; and the pulling is always in one direc- 
tion, always toward the devil-blackness from which a better in- 
fluence is endeavoring to extricate him. 

Our claim is an important one. We are firmly convinced 
that mental integrity may be brought to a state of perfection, 
although the defects that arise from a lack of completion in this 



PHILOSOPHY OF THE SOUL 



407 



age, cannot be fully overcome. They may, however, be materially 
lessened. This position must be thoroughly understood, for it 
holds a serious place in the plan of the future changes. By in- 
complete we refer to that condition which applies to all life in 
this psychozoic period. No brain is perfect, no mind is perfect, 
no body is perfect, no life is perfect, no material is perfect; for 
the age and the era forbid it. Therefore integrity in blind nature 
must not be expected. Its realization is for another stage in the 
career of this planet. 

It is possible to attain perfect mental integrity. 

This is the 679th Ralston Principle; and unless it is clearly 
understood, it will be capable, on its face, of erroneous interpreta- 
tions. Integrity in blind nature is completion or wholeness; as 
we say a machine is finished, all its parts are there, they are lubri- 
cated, polished, and fitted to each other so carefully as to run true 
without a hair's breadth of variation; and not an element of the 
successful operation of the construction is lacking. That is an 
honest machine, in that sense, for it possesses integrity, or whole- 
ness. 

Mental integrity is not mind or brain, nor any faculty 
allied to either, except in the use of purpose. All that which 
intends to do evil is mental crime; all that which does evil with- 
out intention is blind nature; all that which seeks to prevent a 
bettering of the conditions of life, or a bettering of the defects of 
blind nature, is mental purpose to do evil, and is therefore crime. 
The dividing line is sharp and clear. Xo one need mistake it. 
There are two kinds of evil in present earthly existence: 

1. Material imperfection. 

2. Mental imperfection. 

The former is attributable to the defects or incompleteness 
of this period, and is chargeable to blind nature. The latter is 
attributable only to purpose, and is- directly chargeable to a per- 
sonal devil. 

It is not possible to attain material perfection, as the in- 
completeness of this age prevents it. We have said that it is 
possible to attain mental integrity; and for the reason that every 
human being, who cares to do so, is empowered with the ability to 
have an honest purpose in each act and thought of life. The 



408 



IMMORTALITY 



distinction is broad and forceful, as it is pregnant with meaning 
and responsibility. As long as existence endures in this period, 
there will be material imperfection. Wrongs will be committed, 
injuries dealt to innocent and guilty, and the code of morals will 
be fractured time and again, by the agency of blind defects; and 
the best that can be done to lessen these evils will be accomplished 
by the proper kind of education. To that extent only is there 
responsibility. On the other side of the line we find the mind 
held to a strict accountability for all its intended evil; and the acts 
that come under this class of imperfection are of three kinds: 

1. Those deliberately committed. 

2. Those that are the outgrowth of a careless control of the 
being, or indifference in the matter of lessening the material im- 
perfections of life. 

3. Those that arise from refusing to act. 

To illustrate the first, we find the pushing malice of Satan 
urging each man and woman on to some evil, some scandal, some 
temptation, some crime: and necessity, comfort, convenience, and 
the opinions of others who are evilly disposed, are covers by which 
these sins are made attractive. The master of wickedness clothes 
all his lesser deviltry in gilt-edged pleasure. To illustrate the 
second, we will cite the following cases: A man pays no attention 
to his conduct, and some one is injured thereby: a harmless joke 
leads to crime: a careless riding or driving produces pain, loss of 
a limb, or death, or any inattention adds to the inconvenience of 
living. There is also a large class of evil that results from making 
no preparation to prevent it. To illustrate the third, we might 
mention any of the omissions that abound in daily history, and 
lead to harm. The man who sees another in danger, and pays 
no heed to the situation, is guilty of the ill that results, had it been 
in his power to prevent. There can be such a thing as an abso- 
lutely negative offense, in which nothing is done. 

Perfect mental integrity is attainable, for it has been 
attained. There are many men and women on earth to-day who 
possess this high degree of excellence, and yet may or may not be 
classed among the moral people of earth. Some believe in it from 
habit, and practice it as a part of their temperament. There are 
many who would do no wrong, who would think, speak, act no 
lie, who would lose the last cent in their possession rather than 
retain it by dishonesty. As we shall see later, these men and wo- 



PHILOSOPHY OF THE SOUL 



409 



men are so constituted from an inherent nature, aided by heredity; 
and their ranks are not very liberally added to by voluntary 
recruits. 

CZMZ] 

Honesty is the key to immortality. 

This is the 680th Ealston Principle. In answer to the in- 
quiry why honesty is placed above every good deed, every moral act, 
every pure thought, every virtue, and every noble quality, we will 
state that honesty includes them all, and there is no other ma- 
terial or moral element that will do as much. You say that per- 
fection includes all else on the good side of life; so it does; but 
perfection means integrity, and integrity means honesty. Take, 
if you will, all idea of goodness, all idea of morality, all idea of 
religion, out of the world; and honesty will remain so long as 
perfect laws operate perfectly; and, as long as man constitutes a 
defect in the machinery of existence, he will be" out of harmony 
with the laws that control his coming and going. 

In the loftiest sense in which the subject of honesty may 
be considered, we look to the great scheme of creation; to the 
adjustment of all the clockwork of the sky; to the perfect rhythm 
of the orbs as they sing their shining courses through their in- 
terminable annuals; to the marvelous protection of the atoms by 
which the least fleck of dust is secured from loss, and is held to 
its place in the economy of construction: and to every law that 
moves the complicated enginery of matter; all is honesty, all is 
integrity. There is not an insincere transaction in any act of 
God. There is no snare, no trickery, no deception, no lie, no 
forgery, no stealing, no revenge, no invasion of the rights of 
others, in the entire span of creation. The only outcropping of 
dishonesty is found in the brain of animal life; and, owing to the 
malice which bears always the stamp of design, we are led to the 
belief that a Protector stands guard over this malice; which Pro- 
tector must be God or devil; and, as God is never dishonest or 
malicious, the only conclusion tenable is that a personal devil in- 
vents all the evil of existence. This deduction is sound. It will 
stand all the tests of logic and all the scrutiny of analysis. There 
is a personal devil in the sense that there is a personal God. It 
is foil for foil. If God is a power of any kind, the devil is the foil 
of that power, and God is the foil of that devil. These proposi- 



410 



IMMORTALITY 



tions grow in strength of position the more they are thought upon 
and closely examined; until at last they become impregnable. 

The revolutions of the earth around the sun, the circuit 
of the moon about the earth, the journeys of the planets, and all 
the phases of astronomy, are so honest that they may be predicted 
to exactitude, even to the second of time. This is the God side of 
the universe. It is that quality which denotes perfection in crea- 
tion; it is integrity. It is the last round in the order of ascent 
out of the realm of imperfection. It is all that Heaven can offer, 
or ambition attain. Give to mankind this one principle, and sin 
would be an impossibility. If we were asked to name in one word 
the one quality that would embrace every meritorious creed, every 
religion, every requirement for salvation throughout all eternity, 
we could safely produce the word in this alone — honesty. Thou 
shalt not steal — an honest man will not. Thou shalt not murder 
— an honest man will not. Thou shalt not lie — an honest man 
will not. Thou shalt not commit adultery — an honest man will 
not. Thou shalt not covet, envy, overreach, take unfair advantage, 
cause loss to another, mislead — an honest man will not. Thou 
shalt not seek revenge, harbor malice, indulge hatred, return evil 
for evil — an honest man will not. Thou shalt not slander, libel, 
gossip, defame, belittle, misrepresent — an honest man will not. 
Thou shalt not*waste time, idle away moments, neglect opportu- 
nities — an honest man will not. Thou shalt not disregard the 
health and safety of that body which God has intrusted to your 
care — an honest man will not. Thou shalt not neglect the soul 
side of life — an honest man will not. Here is all the religion of 
earth, sky and Heaven, summed up in one word — honesty. 

It is possible to be perfectly honest, in so far as such 
quality affects the line of human advance toward eternity; that is, 
in the mind of this earthly body. Mental honesty is all that can 
be made perfect here, and it is all that needs to be made perfect 
to secure life hereafter. When the question is asked, How can an 
imperfect human being become honest? we point to examples seen 
in all ranks of life, as answers to the inquiry. We have met per- 
fectly honest rich men, though few indeed there are in the world; 
for the very art of accumulating wealth implies the impoverishing 
of those who are less fortunate, and this is rank dishonesty. We 
have seen perfectly honest men and women in the lowest stratum 
of life; but they are very few; for extreme poverty and misfortune 



PHILOSOPHY OF THE SOUL 



imply an unwillingness to till the soil for a living, and this is 
dishonest. The predominating percentages of perfect mental 
honesty are found in the middle classes, embracing the thrifty 
poor, the humble rich, and representatives from all the strata 
between. Rather than sacrifice a temporary gain for a permanent 
stability of good fortune, most persons shut their eyes to the fact 
that honesty is, in the long run, the best investment that can be 
made in this life; and is always a herald of certain success. But 
there are those who recognize this principle, and, consequently, 
there are many examples of perfect mental integrity. 

[ ~68f~ ] 

Mental integrity is an inspired gift. 

This is the 681st Ralston Principle. By inspiration is meant 
the permission to catch a glimpse of the sub-conscious faculty 
mentioned in the 655th Principle. By gift is meant an endow- 
ment that is bestowed upon those alone who seek it for its own 
sake. There are many kinds of inspiration, and all of them are 
interesting studies. The general in battle is inspired in his exer- 
cise of that keen power of observation that leads him to execute 
the lucky stroke in the crisis of engagement; yet his power is 
merely a lighting up of the sub-conscious faculty under stress of 
genius. The financier, much as his operations are unfair, is able 
at times to secure the same discernment through a whetting of his 
brain; but he stands no farther than at the threshold of the sub- 
conscious power. These are the unmeritorious cases. The ge- 
niuses of war, who have battled for their own aggrandisement, have 
died in miserable reverses. Alexander was a drunkard, and died 
wretchedly in his youth. Cassar was slain by his compatriots. 
Napoleon trod the hot pavements of torment during his reign as 
emperor, and died a prisoner at St. Helena. 

The poet is always an inspired interpreter of God ; and 
few there are who are poets. The grinding out of rhythms and 
rhymes, the spelling of pretty words, of rich sounds, of names of 
gems and flowers, do not constitute the poet. He must have the sub- 
conscious faculty in control of his mind and his thoughts; and that 
power alone will make him a poet. Simple as this supposed gift 
seems to be, and rare as it in fact is in this age and generation, 
there is nevertheless no clearer example of the presence of the 
sub-conscious life. The man or woman who loves true poetry, is 



412 IMMORTALITY 

a lover of everything good and beautiful in the earth, in the mind, 
and in the heart. Nor could any better proof of the imperfection 
of this age be found, than in the ridicule which is cast upon the 
divine inspiration of such poets as Longfellow, Tennyson, Milton, 
Shakespeare, and the hosts of others, who have spoken a language 
not understood by beefy brains. The shrivelled minds of American 
newspaper reporters and editors have slurred and abused the tastes 
that prefer chaste literature to the mud and sewerage of modern 
journalism. At the death of Tennyson, these bar-room and brew- 
ery-bred reporters paraded his lines as evidence of his inefficiency 
as a poet, and their abuse of him and of other geniuses has led the 
great public to prefer the cheap sensations of the newspaper false- 
hoods to the noble inspiration of the poet. It is safe to say that 
there is not a man or woman connected with the press of this 
country, who is able to give birth to lines half as meritorious as 
the following extracts of Tennyson: 

"Yet I doubt not through the ages one increasing purpose runs, 
And the thoughts of meu are widened with the process of the suns. * * * 
Not in vain the distance beacons, forward, forward let us range ; 
Let the great world spin forever down the ringing grooves of change. 
Through the shadow of the globe we sweep into the younger day: 
Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay." 

11 Sunset and evening star, 

And one clear call for me ! 
And may there be no moaning of the bar 
When I put out to sea. 

But such a tide as moving seems asleep, 

Too full for sound and foam, 
When that which drew from out the boundless deep 

Turns again home. 

Twilight and evening bell, 

And after that the dark ! 
And may there be no sadness of farewell 

When I embark. 

For though from out our bourne of Time and Place 

The flood may bear me far, 
I hope to see my Pilot face to face, 

When I have crossed the bar." 

Ninety-seven per cent, of humanity will see no true 
poetry in the latter selection; to them it will be mere rhyme and 
rhythm; but the other three per cent, will feel the power of the 



PHILOSOPHY OF THE SOUL 



413 



sub-conscious faculty at work in every line, and a chord, deep and 
long, will be struck by the weight of meaning that is impressed in 
the life behind the words. One is grand in composition; the other 
is sublime in its simplicity; one feels the portend of earth's advance; 
the other speaks for the individual soul; one sees with prophetic 
vision the widening of the mind-force in unison with the unreeling 
life of the sun; the other recognizes the soul-force as something 
that drew from out the boundless deep, turning again home. To 
him, or her, who feels the power of the sub-conscious faculty at 
work in these lines, there is tangible evidence that the soul-embryo 
is seeking lodgment in the life of such person. 

Poetry is a mere incident, however, of the matter under 
discussion. There are four sides to the whole question, as fol- 
lows: 1, the sub-conscious faculty; 2, honesty; 3, the inspiration; 
4, the gift. Honesty and the sub-conscious faculty are one in 
the sense only that the former is the quality of the latter; just as 
beauty is the quality of the flower, yet not the flower, nor a thing 
apart from it. The gift is the attribute of the individual, and 
inspiration is the source of that gift. Hence the four elements of 
the soul-force form a quadrinity, to which each is necessary, yet 
the four are as one, and four in one. This test may be applied to 
every human gift, every talent, and every super-mental endow- 
ment. 

f 682 | 

The brain-mind is not an associate of the soul. 

This is the 682d Ralston Principle. There are three mis- 
takes in vogue connected with the study of the immortal part of 
man. First, it is a mistake to assume that the reasoning faculties 
can recognize God and the soul. Second, it is a mistake to as- 
sume that the quality or excellence of the brain mind is an in- 
dication of quality or excellence of the soul. Third, it is a mis- 
take to assume that the higher up the scale of civilization or 
intelligence the brain mind ascends, the nearer it is to the soul 
itself. All three of these errors are widely prevalent at this time, 
and they may be found in the literature and philosophy of every 
civilized people. The mistakes are due to the fact that rank and 
achievements as a race are confused with the insignia of such rank 
and achievements. In the animal dawn the distinguishing feature 
of creation was the power of locomotion, yet this power was no 



414 



IMMORTALITY 



part of the soul, that lay at the end of that chain of destiny, of 
which the early animal was a necessary link. 

The brain-mind is the feature of the psychozoic period ; 
yet only a link in the same chain of destiny. Few people stop to 
think that the higher order of intelligence, with which man is en- 
dowed, is merely an accommodation of the brain to the more exten- 
sive use of the senses. Even the reflective, the comtemplative, and 
the reasoning powers of the mind are associated with the senses. 
Try to analyze them, and see if this is not true. The age of reason 
is the age of non-soul existence. The mind of the brain is the joint 
property of God and the devil. The soul is the exclusive property of 
God. Eeason of itself is incapable of tasting the essence of soul-life; 
just as the fingers cannot taste the odor of a flower, or the ear see 
the smell of palatable meat. The mixing of the senses is senseless. 
When the infidel undertakes to prove there is no soul, by applying 
the rules of reason to his system of evidence, he succeeds as com- 
pletely as the scientist who proves there is no light, by the evi- 
dence of blind men, who can hear none, feel none, smell none, and 
taste none. To the blind there is no light. To the deaf there is 
no sound. The power to recognize is a gift that is denied many. 

Civilization and intelligence may take new forms in the 
coming centuries, but they can never mount to a higher plane than 
they have yet reached. Their limit is a band of iron, without 
flexibility, and without increase of compass. Beyond this limit 
the brain-mind cannot pass. The ancient Greeks touched the 
keystone in the arch of mind, and that mark has never since been 
reached in the flooding tides of invention, literature and phil- 
osophy. As we have several times stated in the preceding chap- 
ters of this volume, a curve running to its highest arc must, if 
it continues, proceed to descend. Such is the history of all mental 
ages. The achievements of civilization and intelligence overtop 
themselves; and, after passing the zenith or turning point of their 
evolution, turn to degeneracy. Such is the disquieting conclusion 
reached by many eminent scientific students of the pathology of 
our race. Of the various symptoms of degeneration, whether racial 
or family, the extreme and final one is suicide. 

It is unalterably established as a law of nature, that 
throughout all the world the ratio of suicide corresponds exactly 
to the ascending scale of civilization. Thus, among the lowest 
savages self-destruction is practically unknown; the Indian tribes 



PHILOSOPHY OF THE SOUL 



415 



in America are less civilized than the negroes, and suicides among 
the latter are about eighteen times as numerous as among the for- 
mer; while they are ten times more frequent, proportionally, in 
the white race than among the colored population. Moreover, 
suicide is steadily increasing throughout the entire English-speak- 
ing world. In the United States the suicide record since 1890, 
according to recent statistics, stands as follows: 1890, 2,040; 1891, 
3,531; 1892, 3,860; 1893, 4,436; 1894, 4,912; 1895, 5,750, and 
1896, 6,520. These are the figures of the statisticians; but they 
are correct only in their presentation of the proportion of increase. 
For many reasons that need not be stated here, there are omissions 
that cannot be well avoided under the methods employed. A 
private collection of data for 1897 shows the number of suicides 
to be greatly in excess of the figures of the preceding year. 

This unpleasant overtopping of the forces of civilization 
has not f ailed to attract attention. Prof. Lawrence Irwell, in his 
careful monograph on the subject, reprinted from a recent number 
of the Medical News, gives impressive reasons for his conviction 
that the degeneration of the human race, of which the suicidal 
impulse is a sign, is the result of the many deteriorating influences 
inseparable from what we call "civilization," with its excesses and 
vices. It is among the wealthy and "educated'* classes, chiefly, 
that degenerates are fostered, in opposition to the inevitable pro- 
cess of natural selection. "!N"ever in the history of the world/ 7 
declares Prof. Irwell, "was there a time when such strenuous 
efforts were made to prolong the lives of the absolutely unfit, that 
they might have an opportunity of reproducing their kind; never 
was there a race which suffered as the English-speaking race is 
now suffering from the fertility of the worst specimens of human- 
ity." To one who is a thoughtful student of causes, the influence 
that works out these results may be readily discovered. 

The soul, though different from man, involves him 
as its basis. 

This is the 683d Ealston Principle. It is properly the climax 
of this chapter. "We have thus far stated that the soul is im- 
maculate whiteness, and is the essence of God; that integrity is 
its quality, and that this quality may be attained as an inspired 



416 



IMMORTALITY 



gift. Then we learned that we must not look to see the soul 
emerge from the mind, for that faculty is not an associate of the 
immortal part of man. 

The principle which we now seek to maintain is one 

of comparison. It has long been understood that man was made 
in the image of God. If so, then he is made also after a plan 
that most suits his sense-existence. Ever since the 1 'dawn animal' > 
first came upon this earth, there has been a steady uplifting of 
the head as the topmost part of ultimate life; and, having come 
nearest the heavens, resting securely above the framework of the 
body, it has reached its highest point of carriage. God may have 
a larger proportionate head, if He has one at all; but He cannot 
find a better location for it with respect to the rest of the body. 
If, therefore, God has a head, it is placed as man's is placed, above 
the body itself. The uses of the head must have some important 
influence in determining whether one is to exist or not. Humanity 
is a working machine, the chief object of which is to secure food, 
or to protect life, which includes the procuring of food among 
other things, such as shelter and clothing. Every part of the body 
is reminiscent of the savage animals; with the size and shape re- 
duced and mollified by less exacting usage. The canine teeth of 
the most refined woman are lesser tusks of the tiger; as may be 
seen by a comparative examination. The finger nails and toe nails 
are remnants of the claws of the hyena, made flat and thin by 
lack of use. The dormant ear-muscles tell us that their only 
value, which was to prick up the ears to catch the sounds of other 
life, is obsolete because conditions are changed. The arms are 
appendages intended to catch and hold food; the fingers are 
charged with the duty of tearing it apart; the legs and feet run for 
food; the eyes see it; the ears hear flowing water, the sound of 
bird, or the approach of game; the nose detects it; the tongue 
tastes food for safety; the teeth grind it; the stomach digests it; 
the heart and veins circulate it for the sustenance of the body; 
the lungs purify that food when in the form of blood; the in- 
testines and co-operating organs eliminate the waste food, and every 
part of the body, from head to foot, is engaged in the business of 
securing the wherewithal to eat and drink. ' If the arms and legs 
were to be amputated close to the trunk, leaving only the head 
and torso, it would be possible to sustain life, provided some aid 
was at hand to supply the necessaries of existence, to bring water 



PHILOSOPHY OF THE SOUL 



417 



and nutriment, and provide clothing and shelter; in other words, 
the limbs must have substitutes. 

But it may be claimed that the mind is not a food-pro- 
ducing agent. Let us see. There are three brains; the third is 
called the medulla oblongata, and its duty is to keep the stomach 
active during the digestion of food; to keep the heart active to 
circulate the blood made out of that food, and to keep the lungs 
active to purify the blood that is circulated; therefore the three 
duties of the third brain are solely devoted to the food question. 
Then the second brain is called the cerebellum; but its duties are 
merely to move the muscles. These could not operate of them- 
selves; there must be an engine to charge them with its own force. 
As the muscles are devoted to the work of food-getting and pre- 
paring, the second brain is merely an adjunct to the same business 
as that performed by the medulla. Then comes the first brain, 
or cerebrum. This is to think, and every animal or human being 
that attempts to secure food, clothing and shelter in this world, 
must think much and hard. Thus the three brains are blood- 
making, muscle-moving and strong thinking functions. If there 
is any other being connected with man, he would not find it an 
easy task to prove it. If there is another part of him, where is it? 
If you can name any portion of the body that is not connected 
with the purpose of eating, and the securing of food, name it now. 
What is it, and where is it located? It is not in the legs; that is 
agreed. It is not in the arms; that is acceded to. It is not in the 
bladder, kidneys, intestines, liver, stomach, heart, lungs or spinal 
column; and no one pretends to believe it is. !N"ow nothing but 
the head is left. It is not in the mouth, tongue, teeth, throat, ears, 
eyes, nose, nasal cavity, pharynx, hair, scalp, skull or larynx. If 
it is in what is left, it must be in the cerebrum or cerebellum, 
the medulla oblongata being a part of the spinal column. It is 
not in the cerebellum, for that is the clog or horse part of man, 
purely physical. It is not in the cerebrum, for that can be re- 
moved, and the functions of the body be carried on. Where, then, 
is it? 

Any attempt to prove that there is in the human body 
an immortal soul, living in the operations of this life, must ever 
and always be a signal failure. It seems strange that the mind 
will permit its own wishes, its own yearnings, its own hopes and 
fears, to create out of nothing a system of soul theology that 



418 



IMMORTALITY 



answers every problem in the profoundest philosophy of the uni- 
verse. The man who works, lives in all the material acts of the 
body, coupled with a healthful vigor of the mind; yet his one aim, 
first and last, is to support himself and those dependent upon him; 
so he is a mere machine; running about on legs; toiling with his 
arms and hands; feeding the furnace of his vitals with victuals; 
with heart to beat, lungs to breathe, stomach to digest, intestines 
to eliminate; and head to keep charge of these food manipulat- 
ing duties; yet it is claimed that man is made in the image of 
God; which means that God cats, digests, and has need of liver 
and kidneys, legs to walk on, and hands to feel with. Legs are 
made for physical environments, with a friction-resisting soil to 
give them the power of propulsion. God lives in millions of 
worlds, and His opportunities for locomotion are too expansive to 
allow the use of feet or legs. Steps measure a limit of space. 
Aerial flight swims seas of freedom. The winged spirit traverses 
shadows and sunbeams like a dream that loiters on the bank of 
some swollen stream, and anon flits to the throne-room of a queen, 
thence cleaves its course to the eternal snows of the Himala} T as; 
spanning areas as thought leaps the continents or nestles to even- 
ing repose in the lap of some red, gleaming star. 

The whole conclusion of the matter is clear, at least on 
the negative side. There is no reason for believing that God is 
made to walk; and yet it would be impossible to build a physical 
body more beautiful than this which we call human. He who 
grasps worlds, and holds them in the hollow of His hand, cannot 
possess physical hands, or physical arms. If a giant in strides, He 
must be a giant in legs; and this is repugnant to our ideal Creator. 
It is a well settled law that life adapts itself to conditions, and a 
useless form is not given to any being. We therefore are forced 
to conclude that the soul itself is a thing apart from the human 
body. It is not a better body, but a shape and life beyond. 

[ ~684- ] 
The past solves the future. 

This is the 684th Ralston Principle. Where there has been 
a steady and unvarying advance in steps of deliberate design, each 
stamped with the character of its purpose, it is safe to seek the 
solution of what lies ahead by the unraveling of what has been 
woven in the past. That there is a step yet to be taken, is too 



PHILOSOPHY OF THE SOUL 



419 



plain to be argued. That there is a new form of life to be ac- 
complished/is a matter of certainty. That it is not to be like man, 
and yet is to take man as its basis, seems to be settled by the 
verdict of history already made by the recorder of the aeons that 
have fled. Bock was the basis of vegetation. It had to crumble 
into dust before the virgin soil was formed. Yet vegetation is a 
thing apart from rock, taking the latter only as the basis of its 
own growth. Then animal life could not have existed, had not 
vegetation preceded it; for the latter is part of the nature of the 
animal, yet a form apart from it, taking it merely as the basis of 
its growth. Man was a thing apart from the animal on which he 
grew. The dog and horse are the highest types beneath him; yet 
he is as far beyond them as the angel is beyond him. A close 
and minute study of the steps in this ascending scale of develop- 
ment will reveal the plan of the future. The next life is the soul 
life, if we adopt that term for convenience, and it is man meta- 
morphosed. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 



A NEW BIRTH. 



[ 6*5 ] 

THE seed of immortality is sown in the physical body. 
This is the 685th Ralston Principle. It follows out 
the law that has ever been active in the steps of the past ; 
and it is this law that has connected every higher plane of 
existence with that which was next below it. The body-general 
of one condition has been the fruitful womb in which has grown 
and developed the seed of the advance life that followed; and, in 
such a way, all progress has been linked together in one long chain. 

It is an interesting question to inquire what gave the 
first rock its solidity. Ordinarily we expect to find strata and evi- 
dences of pressure connected with every rock. The sediment that 
settles at the river-edges, or along the beaches, or in water bottoms, 
is always resolvable into strata, showing the steady accumulation 
of material washed to such places, and there left to work out its 
changes. The tendency to form rock is inherent in the mixture, 
whether subjected to pressure or not; therefore it may be considered 
a fact that the first condition of this earth was a native rock, formed 
from its accumulations. Water in some form must have been 
present in the air; its fall would gradually wear off the surface of 
the rock, and soil would thus be made. It was this soil that con- 
tained the seed of the vegetable kingdom. 

Whence came the first seed ? Some will hazard a guess 
that it was in the rock. This would have been a physical im- 
possibility, for the solid rock would have killed the seed germs; 
the cold would have killed them; the heat would have done the 
same; and there were extremes of both. By the nebular hypothesis 
we are told that all the solar system was an overheated gas, that 
gradually cooled to a molten mass, and finally to solid matter; and 
that all that has since appeared on earth was contained in that 
hot vapor. If this is true, the heat must have been many thousand 
degrees; Avhile it is well known that a heat of two or three hundred 
degrees will destroy any seed of vegetation, and any germ of animal 



A NEW BIRTH 



421 



life. Therefore the nebular hypothesis is radically wrong. It 
cannot stand for a moment, unless God is admitted as a creator 
following up the work by specific acts of a miraculous order. If 
the latter be true, it is more in accord with the trend of creation 
to say that God moves in the solar machinery that is unfolding 
the destiny of this i^lanet in successive advances. 

But the great fact stares us in the face that the rock, 
crumbling beneath incessant rains until soil had been made by 
pulverizing, was seedless; for it must have been seedless; yet it 
gave birth to the vegetable kingdom. This was a miracle. It 
came about in one of the two ways: either it was created by the 
immediate fiat of God; or else it came in due course from the 
sun, in one of those epochs that require millions of years for their 
unfolding. Another miracle happened. The vegetation that 
overspread the earth became the womb in which was sown and 
developed the seed of the animal kingdom. This is clearly evi- 
dent. In fact, it is true that the animal body is but a collection 
of the vegetable cells of protoplasm. Still another fact appeared, 
no less miraculous. Mind was sown in the womb of the animal 
kingdom, and came thence to man, and humanity crowned the 
work thus far accomplished. The final step of all, the goal of 
progress, is the propagation of the soul, or the immortal being; and 
this, instead of being a part of man, is but a seed sown in this life 
to be developed in the next, and there find its proper growth. If 
this is not true, then the past is not the key to the future. If this 
is not true, then the whole story of the earth is false. The seed 
of immortality is sown in the physical body, but not in every 
physical body. As there are infertile rocks, so there are infertile 
human bodies. 

f 686 ] 
There must be a new birth. 

This is the 686th Ralston Principle. It embraces the idea 
so often expressed, in one form or another, in the various religions 
of the world, from the beginning of history. Strange to say, it 
has a single meaning under two widely varying circumstances. By 
being born again, in the plainest purpose of the term, is meant 
one birth added to another; that is, the individual passing through 
a change that results in a new being while retaining the individual- 
ity of the original. This is the more civilized meaning of the law. 



\ 



422 



1MMORTAUT Y 



Darker religions teach the doctrine of a new birth after death; or 
something akin to the transmigration of souls; and the crude, 
though wild films of the semi-heathen structure, known as modern 
theosophy, contains the same evidences of a savage origin. The 
true process, as we shall see, is as follows: 

1. The seed of the soul is sown in this life. 

2. The embryo of this life becomes the foetus of the next 
by metamorphosis. 

3. The full fledged soul is a being not intended for earth. 

4. The seed and the embryo are considered one; although 
they represent progress in this life. 

5. The foetus is a full being, limited by existence on this 
earth. 

(>. The three stages arc often referred to as one and the 
same, and the term "soul" applies to any one of them; that is, to 
the seed or embryo, to the foetus, and to the final existence. 

A new birth in the sense in which it is really intended 
by all advanced religions, and especially b} r the Christian, is the 
addition of one existence to another. In exactly the same way, 
and by the same principle, the vegetable kingdom was born in the 
soil of the barren rock; in exactly the same way the animal king- 
dom was born in the lap of plant life; and the mind of man found 
a like embryo in the lower animals, the evidence of which is plainly 
visible at this time. As some rock is infertile, so some human 
bodies are devoid of the possibilities of such a change. The first 
thought of a religious person will be that of doubt; for it has all 
along been supposed that every man, woman and child possesses 
an immortal soul. A claim of such a character as that would 
quickly drive every sensible person into infidelity. But the Bible, 
in both the Old and Xew Testaments, teaches otherwise. "Ye 
must be born again,"* is the refrain of Christianity; and the destruc- 
tion of millions of human beings by the direct act and choice of 
God, must stand as conclusively proving that all human beings are 
not immortal. If we must be born again, as Christ said in several 
instances, and as His disciples taught, then the line is drawn at 
once between mortality and immortality. The remark was not an 
idle one. There is nothing more solemn in the whole Bible; noth- 
ing more truly meant as uttered. But if the Scriptures had never 
been written, if Christ bad never come upon earth, the true student 
and philosopher, examining the evidence at his command, must 



A NEIV BIRTH 



423 



have formulated the same law from the mass of testimony and 
proof that crowds his mind. Christ speaks plainly. The new 
birth was of the spirit, as it is translated, but of the soul-embryo 
as it was uttered by Him. The language is clear. The mani- 
festation of a new being, that is being born anew, and its confession 
to the world through baptism, was embodied in those teachings; 
and it was proclaimed that every individual was barred effectually 
from the kingdom of Heaven, unless a new birth took place. We 
refer to this, not to rely upon it as a means of proving our prin- 
ciple, but merely to show to Christians that this law of nature is 
not in conflict with their doctrines. So, likewise, the fact that 
God, repenting that He had made man, destroyed all the millions 
of the wicked earth, is conclusive proof that few indeed are born 
again; for those who were destroyed then in body because of their 
worthlessness, were resolved to the funds from which they came. 
Any other view is purely a contradiction of God. Thus we see 
that the religious writings agree with the natural laws. 

[ 687 ] 

The orgasm of soul-creation is complete evidence 
of itself. 

This is the 687th Ealston Principle. Orgasm is the creative 
act referred to in the discussion of the 673d Principle. It is not 
evolution; and bears no more relation to that process than did the 
germination of the seed of the vegetable kingdom in the barren 
rock-soil of the primitive era of the earth. It was then that the 
first orgasm occurred. There comes a time in human life when the 
same process is repeated, or may be enacted, if the life is cast for a 
fate of this kind; and the most satisfactory part of it is that the 
orgasm of soul-creation is complete evidence of itself. 

It is not necessary to go back to the evidence already 
adduced, to show the existence of the sub-conscious faculty, in the 
many phases which it assumes; nor need we, at this place, iterate 
the proof of that sublime condition of the inner mind which may 
be termed perfection. Our present purpose is merely to confirm 
a well-known fact relating to the soul's origin. In the first place, 
all civilized religions are obscure on the question of the presence 
of the soul in the earthly body; all admit that it is not suited to 
the earth, nor the earth suited to it. All state that the soul is 



424 



IMMORTALITY 



to be perfect hereafter, but is imperfect here. These admissions 
are contradictory; for they give us two souls, or none at all, in 
this life. 

Another fallacy in relation to the origin of the soul 
appears in the claim that it enters the bod} 7 with the breath, and 
goes out with the breath. If the claim could be sustained, it 
would prove the soul to be located in the bronchial tubes; for 
there the breath stops. It never enters the lungs. The carbon 
dioxide comes out of the air cells and, by the law of the diffusion 
of gases, the oxygen is exchanged for it. The use of air is for 
mechanical purposes. The soul that is said to leave the body 
when the breath goes out, is the physical spirit known as the 
vitality, or the life. It is really a soul, but not the sub-conscious 
faculty, or the real soul, that lives on after death. It is really 
nothing more than physical vitality; but it has form for a brief 
time, and wanders about in the sense that it sends impressions of 
itself about through the process of transference, or telepathy. "We 
have often referred to it as the soul; but it is more properly a 
spirit, vanishing and evanescent. The terms, soul and spirit, are 
interchangeable. 

The real soul, or the immortal part of man is not de- 
pendent upon the breath; if it were, the cases of suspended anima- 
tion would require a new soul to be created every time the breath 
returned. For this reason it is not true that the soul enters the 
body of an infant at the moment of its birth. There is no differ- 
ence between the unborn child and that which has come into the 
world. The foetus at seven months' pregnancy is a fully equipped 
human being; and the two months further waiting will tend only 
to substitute a little growth that may as well take place outside 
the body of the mother as in it. Children are born into the world 
that do not breathe for some time; and the physician avoids cut- 
ting the naval cord in order to allow the babe to retain the pre- 
natal condition, and live on the circulation of the mother's blood, 
during which time the lungs of the child are inactive. It is not 
safe to cut it away until respiration is established, for it will die. 
In that interval of time there was as much soul in the infant as 
afterward; so that the dividing line is not at the juncture of tak- 
ing breath. Then, if the soul does not enter the body at the time 
of birth, it must come in before then or afterward, or not at all. 

Let us see if the soul enters the child prior to the time of 



A NEW BIRTH 



425 



birth; and if so, when? There are but three opportunities. One 
is at quickening, when the embryo is supposed to be changed to 
a foetus; another is at the setting or amalgamation of the proto- 
plasm of the male with the egg of the female; and the earliest is 
at the orgasm, when the male germ or true life is actually created. 
The last named cannot be the creation of the soul, or even of its 
seed, for there are millions of germs created by such orgasm that 
perish for one that is saved; and it cannot be true that so many 
souls are wantonly destroyed; nor is there anything to indicate the 
establishing of life that is destined to live forever. The union 
of the germs of the two sexes is open to the same objections. 
Many are lost after such uniting, and there is nothing in the act 
that bears the stamp of unusual importance. The time of quick- 
ening is purely a step in the progress of development, by which 
the various functions of the body come into play. It happens to 
be the first efforts of the muscular system to take on the activities 
assigned to itself; and there is nothing but animal tendencies in- 
dicated. Indeed, the acts of orgasm, of union, of quickening, and 
of birth, are all animal, and no more. It is, then, true that the 
soul does not, and cannot, enter the body prior to, or at the time 
of, birth. If it comes before death, it must come by some specific 
act during life. 

This specific act is called the orgasm of soul-creation, and 
corresponds to every orgasm established in the long line of life 
on earth, since 'the first vegetable cell was formed in the pulverized 
rock. If soul is to come out of man, there is reason why it should 
not have its origin in the same way, and by the same process, that 
has characterized all births. There is an ecstacy in every orgasm. 
We cannot measure that of the flower or the plant, for their 
language is unknown to us; but the honeyed petals of exquisitely 
shaped and colored blossoms are charged with the pleasant duties 
of the act. The best in tree, in bush, in vine, in shrub, emanates 
from leaf and stem in the form of flowers. The best in man is 
the blossoming of his sub-conscions faculty into the soul-embryo. 
What is the orgasm that is enacted at the time of so wonderful a 
transformation? 

Call it by what name you will, it is a clear piece of work, 
visible to every consciousness. Names have been given to it, in 
and out of religion; but it seems that it cannot be adequately 
named. It is too important a matter to be passed over lightly, 



426 



IMMORTALITY 



and we shall examine it a little at this place. There are three 
phases of this orgasm. 

1 . In infancy. 

2. Outside of religion. 

3. Within religion. 

As to infants, we regard them as perfect in the conditions that 
make for eternity. No person can study a child without realizing 
more of God than of man in its nature, provided the infant is the 
offspring of parents who come under two following phases. 

Outside the pales of religion there occur many soul- 
births that are absolutely genuine. The incidents are always in- 
teresting. Perhaps one of the following cases may coincide with 
experiences known by you to be true, either in your own life, or 
that of another. We select four, to bring into our history the 
annals of the four divisions of responsible humanity; manhood, 
womanhood, young-manhood, young-womanhood. A man says: 
"I never read the Bible. I never went to church. I was never 
talked to by any person professing religion. I studied my own 
life, and the ways of people whom I met with daily. I saw and 
felt the effects of wickedness; and I was tired of playing a part 
in the same company. I thought and studied day by day. I 
wished to do right. I longed to deal honorably with my neigh- 
bors. I thought of my wife and children, of my home, and the 
many ways I could bless and bene (It them all. I assumed new 
duties; became more interested in the burdens borne by those who 
called me father, and the woman who was their mother; and I 
make their tasks lighter by taking on all the cares I could pile 
upon my shoulders. Tn business I became quieter, but more 
obliging, more patient, more willing to endure complaints, and 
more ready to rectify faults. My one standard was honesty for its 
own sake, and this seemed to mean everything else. I felt the 
light coming on each day I lived; and, at last, I experienced a 
change, which came as a climax. Now I deem it my duty to go to 
church, to observe the Sabbath, and to worship God." — This man 
had passed through what religious people call "conversion." Many 
men and women have come into the Church b}^ transformation of 
this kind, worked out by the sub-conscious faculty, and resulting 
in that climax which is known as the orgasm of soul-birth; and it 
it safe to assert that there is no back-sliding. — A woman tells the 
following experience: "I had spent all my life up to the age of 



A NEW BIRTH 



427 



thirty in frivolous amusements; reading common novels that ex- 
cited but did not elevate the mind; dancing, card-playing, gossip- 
ing, dressing to outdo my neighbors, and things of this kind. I 
began one day to think of my children, of my husband, and of 
myself. I was not a church attendant, but often visited here and 
there to display my fine clothes and new hats. When the serious 
moods came over me, I was filled with doubt; but I did not consult 
any minister, nor did I seek solace in religion. These thoughts 
never even entered my head. I wished to live a more consistent 
life, not a soberer one. I wanted more real happiness, not prayer, 
Bible-reading, severity or gloom. My ideas took practical shape. 
I felt like setting an example, not giving advice. It seems strange 
that, first of all, I began to look after my servants, especially in the 
kitchen. Soon the table looked better, the food was more care- 
fully cooked, more wholesome, and more invitingly set before my 
husband and children. They seemed happier and healthier for it. 
The house w T as neater and cleaner. My bad temper went from me. 
Sunshine entered at the door; irritability flew out the window. 
My example drew followers. This change went into my life out- 
side. I gave up none of my old friends, but was more neighborly, 
more kind to those who needed cheer, and less gossipy. In the 
course of a year of steady bettering of myself, I felt one day a pure 
white light enter my soul, and a calmness that has been perma- 
nent. After it had come, I studied its nature, but said nothing. 
More months passed, and I called upon the wife of the minister of 
an humble church, who told me I had experienced a change of 
heart. I felt that my duty called me into church membership, 
and I obeyed its dictates." — This woman's transformation was un- 
sought by her; it was unsolicited; no one urged it upon her. It 
was a perfect orgasm of soul-birth; and thousands of others have 
attained the same end, with no Bible, and no minister to lead them 
to it. — A young man tells the following: "I was tempted to go 
into bad company, but the voice of my dead mother came back to 
me out of the years of youth, and I fell back upon myself, resolved 
to live a life of which she would not be ashamed, as she looked 
down upon me from her home in Heaven. I went to no church. 
I had no religion, no guide of that sort; only my resolution. * * * 
Soon my life changed all round. I worked out the problem 
alone. But I was not prepared for the sudden inpouring of a new 
self that occurred one evening, when I was walking alone, thinking 



428 



IMMORTALITY 



of my resolution to live a perfectly honest life, at all hazards, and 
regardless of all sacrifices. I seemed a new person." — The same 
experience has been concurred in by thousands of others. The 
young man afterward allied himself to a church, and never swerved 
from his new life. — The fourth experience is taken from the testi- 
mony of a sweet young woman, who spoke of it as the way she was 
converted out of the Church. After relating the practical steps 
she took in response to the demand from her own heart to lead 
a pure life, she concludes: "I had no motive, and nothing special 
to gain. My friends were the same, and as numerous before as 
after the resolve I made. I found greater happiness in trying to 
do good at all times, and helping others to conquer their troubles. 
I drove all selfishness out of my life. I was honest to myself, to 
my mind, to my body, to my companions, and to everything. I 
felt that I was exerting a good influence over others, and this made 
me very happy. I cannot tell you of the hundred little things that 
a girl can make better each day she lives. * * * At length I met 
a very decided change. It came all at once, one afternoon. A 
breath of peace entered my heart, and filled it with a holy calm 
that I cannot describe. I was the same girl with a new self within 
me. No one noticed the change.'* — As was said previously, it is 
likely that you are familiar with experiences of this kind; if one 
has ever fallen to your lot, you need not read this chapter further, 
for you are already convinced of the truth of our principle. It 
does not seem probable that we have been favored with more evi- 
dence of this orgasm than you have; and when we say that many 
remarkable transformations have been witnessed in the lives of 
others by this process of soul-birth, changing men and women to 
nobler beings, we feel sure that you are fully aware of the truth 
of the claim. 

Within the Church many conversions, so-called, are 
continually occurring; but where they are genuine, it may always 
be ascertained that the experience is an orgasm in which the soul- 
embryo is born. The change of heart or conversion ordinarily met 
with in Church life, is a pure sham, in which the convert is a 
deliberate pretender, or else a badly mistaken individual. The 
arguing a man or woman into such a change is sure to lead to a 
false conversion. In the first place, the mind is not the agent 
of the sub-conscious faculty, and the soul cannot be reached by the 
convincing deductions of reason. In the second place, all true 



A NEIV BIRTH 



429 



converts are unsolicited; those who are "urged" to change their 
hearts, may do so as an accommodation to themselves and to others; 
but they are mere air balloons, nothing when pricked. In the 
third place, there are persons to whom it is not permitted to give 
birth to a soul, to whom it is not permitted to believe in immortal- 
ity and the blessed side of life. It is true that men and women 
may cause the conversion of others, but only of certain others, and 
only by certain ways. Let us see what they are. 

When a person young or old has experienced this new 
birth, the face changes wonderfully. Every muscle, line, feature, 
lineament, yields to the control of the sub-conscious faculty, where 
formerly it responded to the mind and physical being. Such a face 
is never mistaken. It is not met with at all in some departments 
of life; and yet in others it holds a goodly proportion. Its in- 
fluence is great, for, it is felt decidedly and distinctly. We lay 
down the following rules, each a fact of prime importance: first, 
the urging or soliciting others to become converts is productive of 
sham results; second, every person who has been born anew, should 
exert an influence over others toward the same end; third, urging 
often leads such others to a wrong interpretation of themselves, 
and to a premature step, which proves false; fourth, the example 
of one who has experienced this orgasm, will so make itself felt and 
known by others that the right results are more often attained. 
A minister of the Gospel should be discernible by his face, as easily 
as the sun is distinguished from the stars; but we are sorry to 
chronicle the too well-known fact that few pastors are endowed 
with this open evidence of their own conversion. Let any such 
man move about among the people, and be seen of them, and he 
will make converts by his example, which' goes forth to those 
about him. In his preaching he will neither reason, expound, 
nor argue; but he will tell the story of human life to human be- 
ings in such a way that their better impulses will mount the debris 
of their sins, and remodel their daily conduct. You may look over 
an assembly of one thousand preachers, and select, without fail and 
without a second's hesitation, every converted man in the lot: and 
the rest should be sent to manual labor on the rich farming lands 
of the country, where they may earn an honest living by the sweat 
of their brows. We do not charge this majority with dishonesty, 
but merely with being grossly mistaken in their own conviction-. 
We repeat what we have alreacty said; the orgasm of soul-creation 



430 



IMMORTALll Y 



is complete evidence of itself; and this evidence conies in over- 
whelming abundance to its possessor, as well as standing forth in 
example that shines like a clear light before all mankind. 

The greatest of errors in this regard occurs in supposing 
that the so-called "conversion"' is a mental act, or can be con- 
trolled by the mind. Many clergymen believe that such a step 
consists in breaking down the opposition of the reasoning faculties. 
All this is contrary to the facts. There is no process of argument, 
and no logic that can lead to the orgasm that gives birth to the 
soul. It is not a mental operation. The way does not lie through 
the mind. Wisdom is not involved in the act, for the poor and 
ignorant are as fully blessed as the rich and learned. Xor does 
salvation depend on the ability to decide how much of the Bible 
is genuine, and how ranch is erroneous. A young minister, who 
had graduated from a great university, and afterward from a 
theological seminar} 7 , came home to his old father, and told him 
that the professors at the latter institution taught and proved 
conclusively by the most exhaustive learning that the plan of 
salvation, as set forth in the Bible, was all a mistake; that the fall 
of man was an impossibility, and the records of creation wore 
faulty. The old man cried: "Then the millions of poor men and 
women, who have been saved by the Bible, will now be lost/' 

When the time comes, as it one day will, that men will 
recognize the fact that the moral and religious teachings of the 
Bible are inspired, and all else not; that its sublime doctrines are 
impregnable; and that conversion is a transaction that takes place 
regardless of all teachings and of all knowledge; then the ground 
upon which this problem rests will become secure. We often hear 
clergymen say, "If you will decide to give your heart to Christ, 
He will save you." He will do nothing of the sort. This fallacy 
has filled, and is filling, the churches with three classes of dead- 
wood that serve to choke the stream of pure salvation: there are 
the diffident, who accept every novelty; there are the business men, 
who are after customers; there are the women, who are past their 
prime. A homely, or ugly woman; an old maid without matri- 
monial prospects; an ill-natured and unattractive young lady; an 
ancient female, whose temper has cleared the deck of all her 
friendships; a boarding-house keeper, who thrives on what she does 
not give her boarders; a disjointed young man, who starts on a 
diagonal course through the world; a merchant, or professional 



A NEW BIRTH 



431 



gentleman, who knows how to butter his bread on both sides; an 
old-timer, too lame to saw wood, and to decrepit to go errands; 
these are the rank and file of the average church membership of 
the world to-day; and the mistake is made in the invitation of the 
minister, who tells them that salvation will follow if one merely 
agrees to accept it. These ministers count numbers, like the In- 
dian girl who counts her beads. You might as well inform a 
woman that she will become a mother, if she only makes up her 
mind that she will. 

It is a cruel mockery to teach immortal hopes through 
these muddy channels. ISTuinbers never made a church strong. 
The temptation to collect a salary leads most ministers to such a 
course of management as will garner up the requisite number of 
sheaves that bear a money crop. This is human. The most 
powerful Church conceivable is that which contains in its roll of 
membership only those who have been born anew. Put two or 
three such persons together, and they will make their presence 
felt in the commimity. Our protest is made not to discourage 
the admission of everybody into the Church, but because the false 
conversion is proving an effectual bar to the true change. In other 
words, we know a representative church, whose membership num- 
bers over two hundred, of which number fully two hundred have 
never been born anew; and of these it is likely that more than half 
would have experienced the true change, had not the minister in- 
formed them that their mental decision was the new birth. 

Let us repeat it again, the creation of the soul is an act of 
orgasm, coinciding in all respects with every creative act, large and 
small, that has occurred in the life of this planet. As flower, tree, 
and plant; bird, fish, and brute; the vegetable kingdom, the animal 
kingdom, and the mental kingdom, have one and all come forth 
out of nature by means of the act of orgasm, it is not reasonable 
to assume that the soul is to be produced in any other way. 
Fortunately, the evidence is abundant that the soul is born in this 
life, and that it is the new birth. The test is not mental. We 
cannot decide that we will be saved. There is but one way; and 
it is the same whether in or out of religion; the whole existence of 
the individual must turn honest. In Heaven and earth, there is 
but one moral law, and that is honesty. It is the highest ordinance, 
and it overtops all religion. Before its lofty demands, the creeds 
of earth crumble like sand, and pale into nothingness. When once 



432 



IMMORTALITY 



the mind, heart and body become honest, the soul-orgasm occurs, 
and its presence is unmistakable; no one will ever be in doubt about 
it. Perfect honesty is possible. Once attained, there is no losing- 
it, no falling by the wayside. 

f 688 ] 
The devil walks with man. 

This is the 688th Ralston Principle. We are thrown back 
upon the diversity of views as to what is meant by the devil. Is 
lie a personal being? Is he a force or fund, having power? Is he 
self? In any case we are compelled to credit him with having 
intelligence, and that in the highest degree. The devil is a brainy 
fellow. Because of the fact that he walks with every human being, 
a new birth is necessary. There are two ways of looking at this 
question; and it is of some importance to ascertain which is 
correct. 

1. Either it is true that all humanity which is below the 
station of the soul-embryo, is the devil: 

2. Or else it is true that all humanity which is below the 
station of the soul-embryo, is in the control of the devil. 

If the former of these propositions is true, much of the 
wickedness and proneness to crime that prevail in the world, may 
be explained. Revenge, malice and hatred are of the devil; and 
may be aroused in every human heart. But there are obstacles in 
the way of its being true. Weeds were not created by man; they 
existed before he did. Poisons, flies, mosquitoes, wasps, hornets, 
fleas, lice, gnats, cockroaches, spiders, tarantulas, scorpions, asps, 
lizards, snakes, sharks, and the multitude of desperately evil intel- 
ligences that are useless to creation, yet are villainously cruel in 
the agonies and tortures the}' produce, were not created by man. 
So the little lives that destroy the lungs; the little brigands that 
produce the pain, the suffering, and the horrible deaths of typhoid 
fever, cholera, yellow fever, diphtheria, small-pox, lock-jaw, hydro- 
phobia, cancer, and other ravages, were not made by man. Xor did 
God make them. 

He who created the form and fragrance of flowers, the 
delights of beauty, the pleasure of harmony in color and in music, 
could not have so jarred upon these promises of Heaven as to have 
introduced the wanton cruelties of venomous, crawling, creeping, 
gnawing, vicious diseases, the languishing hours of suffering, wast- 



A NEW BIRTH 



433 



ing, dying miseries. Such fiendish deviltry cannot suit the pur- 
poses of any honest Creator. For these reasons it is not true that, 
man himself is Satan. It is not true that all humanity which is- 
below the station of the soul-embryo, is the devil. 

It seems at times as if it could be proved that the mind! 
of the brain, which may properly be termed the brain-mind, is the 
devil himself, and the sub-conscious faculty is God. We are not 
prepared to make this claim, as we are not fully satisfied of its- 
truth. Yet analysis, as far as carried, finds no fault. It may or 
may not be provable. The mind, in its best, is a smart machine 
of huge self-conceit, whose highest work is evil. It may be argued,, 
in opposition, that the sublime works of Homer, Virgil, Dante, 
Shakespeare, Milton and others prove to the contrary; yet they, 
do not, for they are clearly of the sub-conscious mind, which is of 
the soul. 

The first position falling, it is then true that all humanity 
which is below the station of the soul-embryo, is in the control of 
the devil. It is easily proved that there is a personal power of evil,, 
in the same sense as that there is a personal God. We do not be- 
lieve that this person is self. We do not believe that hell is the* 
conscience, for the deeper we are in Hades, the less we feel the 
pangs of conscience. Nor is it true that remorse is our fiery pun- 
ishment, for murderers and all dyed criminals suffer more remorse- 
for the unsuccessful crimes of their career, than for those that, 
succeed in diabolism. One who can kill, and fatten on the pro- 
ceeds of death; one who can run a brewery, and build a college for' 
fame; one who can rob widows and orphans, and found a church on- 
so-called bank profits; one who can steer a nasty New York Sunday 
paper through the slums of America, and seek reverential honors 
by soap-bubble deeds of charity, is no more capable of feeling re- 
morse than the cat who has swallowed a pet canary bird. Con- 
science is culture, without which it cannot exist. 

The devil walks with every human being up to tha 
time when the soul-embryo is created. After the orgasm has oc- 
curred, the whole course of life is changed. The devil is on earth; 
in every land where there is intelligent life, from the drop of 
protoplasm to the king of an empire. If you have ever expe- 
rienced that transformation of nature by which a soul has been 
given life in your body, you know it, and you know it by evidence 
so clear and distinct that doubt is impossible; but the chances are 



434 



IMMORTALITY 



ten thousand to one, that no such thing has occurred. In such 
case, the life you live is one of companionship with his dread 
majesty, the devil. We will prove this in any case that may come 
personally to our notice. 

Side by side with you day and night the many numbered 
genius of evil stalks. You walk the street; the silent footsteps of 
the devil attend your every stride, stooping, crouching, bending on 
your every nod and beck; head thrust forward, under your face; 
red eyes looking up into yours. You glance into the store win- 
dows, the devil sees what you see, and plants envy and covetousness 
in your heart. You go in; he goes with you, lurking behind the 
door, and squeezing past as you join the throng. At home you 
sit down; he takes an invisible chair at your side; sees what you 
see; thinks what you think; reads what you read. If you cast the 
sensational newspaper aside, or discard the dirty novel for an in- 
spiring season with some nobler literature, he slinks out of the 
room; but, at the end, you look up, and there he is, leering around 
the corner of the doorway, grinning at you. In the dark he makes 
the air full of his presence, and you are afraid. In bed he sleeps 
by your side; and, when you are locked in slumber, he creeps into 
the folds of your closer embrace, and lays his tired head upon your 
breast, ready to awake when the first changing beat of your heart 
announces your stirring. Vigilant devil! You cannot shake him 
off. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 



SOUNDINGS IN THE SEA. 



[ 689 ] 




*HE soul-foetus will develop on earth. 

This is the 689th Ralston Principle. It distinguishes 
between the embryo and the foetus. This difference is 



found in every kind of life. The all prevailing rule can- 
not be ignored, merely because so great a stake as the soul is 
involved. It seems to have been the favorite plan of nature to 
bring all life into existence by the act of orgasm, to make that life 
pass through the seed or embryo form, then the foetus, then the 
full being ; and we obtain on earth the most positive evidence of 
its operation with relation to the soul, as far as we are able to know 
of its development. We therefore divide the life-periods of the 
soul into three : 

1. The seed or embryo, which is produced in the physical 
body. 

2. The foetus, or earth-soul, which will dwell upon this planet 
in the next era. 

3. The divine soul, or fully created being, which is destined 
for immortality. 

The question now arises, how are we to prove these posi- 
tions? In the first place, if any student of this book will take the 
trouble to read and re-read these pages from the first to the present, 
it will be safe to say that he will admit that our claims are already 
fully proven. But for the convenience of one and all who may 
hesitate to re-travel so much ground, we will say that a condensed 
review, or more properly a summing up of the evidence already 
given, may serve the purpose well. We have already seen that 
the past is the key to the future ; for whatever is shown to be a 
steady rule of action through seons immemorial, and through vicis- 
situdes that are kaleidoscopic in their variations, may be set down 
as a safe guide to the coming trend of time. 

(435) 



436 



IMMORTALITY 



[ 690 ] 

Each law is eternal. 

This is the 690th Ralston Principle. The steadfastness of the 
laws that govern the development of new eras has been so clearly 
manifested that there can be no question as to the outcome. Even 
the first of these laws is still true, and will ever be active as long 
as the earth shall last. It is cumulative. The very fact of living 
is dependent upon the vital-supply which the sun bestows ; and, 
although that accumulation is in the form of infinitesimal grains 
of golden light, it is nevertheless steady and sure. 

Time will bring about the panoramic unfolding of the next 
supply that now holds the secret of the coming era. This sounds 
like the dream of fairyland : but it is cold fact. Any scientist of 
repute will prove it as a mathematical certainty. The sun is 
admitted to be the source of the earth ; and the source of all 
activity on this globe ; the activity which, whether chemical or 
vital, plays upon and affects matter ; not merely feeling or thought, 
That the crust of the earth consists of sun deposits, and that the 
nature of these accumulations varies with each step of geological 
history, may be as easily proved as that the earth turns on its axis. 
If it were not so, then a single question would tear plutosophy to 
shreds ; how came it that molten matter, many times hotter than 
was needed to destroy seeds and germs, when it became cool, 
teemed with vegetation ? This representative question cannot be 
answered except upon the theory that the life of the vegetable 
kingdom came to the earth after the first matter had cooled ; and, 
as there was no other source of supply than the sun, the vegetable 
kingdom must have come from this source of supply in a subse- 
quent era. This is a perfectly demonstrated fact ; unshakable and 
impregnable against all the assaults of criticism. 

We also find that the earth's development is progres- 
sive. The fact is beyond dispute. In the past life has reached 
upward to man, but man is not the goal of creation ; for the aim 
is higher ; the fountain head is higher ; and the fountain seeks the 
level of its source. So imperfect a thing as man, were he the one 
object of all this universal labor, would place the brand of weak- 
ness upon the genius that surveyed the track of this orbit through 
the sky. Were humanity lower than it is, and its blackest depths 
seem to touch the bottom of the pit, the conceit of the mjnd would 



SOUNDINGS IN THE SEA 



437 



conjure up some plan of salvation, establish a religion and issue 
free passes to Heaven. 

The next step in this progress is the most fascinating 
theme that can engage the attention of the mind. While we can- 
not see it even in imagination, we may conjecture the necessary 
details that must attend its coming. In the first place, the idea of 
mental supremacy must be abandoned, just as the idea of physical 
prowess must be discarded. The beauty, grace, strength and sym- 
metry of the human form at its best, must ever take rank over the 
same qualities in the lower animals. So mind, peering above the 
bounds of the physical fortress, is a worthier plane than that 
which takes its level in the realm of brute strength. Then, when 
the poor inefficiencies of the mental world have spent their course, 
the sub-conscious faculty appears and looms above them all. The 
ten thousand ugly words of the dictionary may all be applied to 
the mind, and there is no crime, no sin, no error, no wrong, from 
the meanest to the most horrible, that cannot be charged to the 
mind ; but when anything beautiful, sweet, cheering, noble, grand, 
sublime, Godlike is conceived, it is inspired by the sub-conscious 
faculty. Mind, therefore, is not to be the ruling spirit of the 
next era. 

[ ~^~ ] 

The soul-embryo will pass through death to immor- 
tal life. 

This is the 691st Ralston Principle. It must not be construed 
to mean that when death comes, the soul will enter upon its final 
state. The religion of the ancient Jews, and the tenets of the 
Christian denominations, including all the Protestants as well as 
the Catholic division, taught and teach that there is an interme- 
diate state between this life and Heaven. As that matter does not 
come within the scope of this discussion, we cannot pass upon it ; 
but it may be interesting to note that the eternal promise given by 
the laws of progressive creation, leaves no doubt as to the fact that 
perfection must be attained on this earth. This is clearly seen 
and explicitly set forth as an unchallengeable fact. No one be- 
lieves that the Creator will abandon this globe before it has reached 
its perfect state. Each age has seen it improve, thus far ; and the 
law of improvement is eternal, expiring only at the fulness of 
perfection. 



438 



IMMORTALITY 



Before one life can come out of another, the germ must 
have been sown. Before the forest could have come out of the 
rock, the seed must have germinated in the crumbling sand of that 
rock. Before a human being can pass into eternity, the seed of 
the soul, taking its initial step in the act of orgasm, must give 
birth to the embryo of that soul. This is natural. It is the 
course of creation. It is the law and plan of God. It concurs 
with the entire Bible, from end to end. It is the only law that 
will explain the Bible ; the degradation of man ; the destruction 
of a thousand million people by God Himself : the curses, threats, 
portending predictions ; the life and mission of Christ ; and the 
story of Revelation. It is the only law that will justly and hu- 
manely dispose of the swarming, reeking, cancerous millions of 
men and women that infest this fair globe to-day. New as it may 
seem, slow as the world of intelligence may be to accept it, we 
nevertheless say, and we repeat it, that this is the only law that 
unlocks the door of immortality ; and whether the mind of this 
age grasps it or not, the time is not fifty years distant when every 
church and every school-house will write upon its walls, this tren- 
chant summary of all religion and all philosophy. 

So much being assured the next fact becomes important. 
We find that immortality is based upon the birth of the embryo 
here. The human body is its placenta. The foetus is a formed 
life, yet undeveloped in its first stages and fully developed in its 
last. An embryo is unformed life. The soul, therefore, in the 
human body is without form ; and as such we are compelled to re- 
gard it. What is sometimes seen as the spirit is a mere physical 
vitality returning to its fund where it will dissolve. What are 
often known as spiritual manifestations, are either emanations of 
the morbid force of the individual, or else the rappings and scrawl- 
ings of the devil. No good ever came from them ; and the fact that 
the devil through his emissaries is ever attending some footsteps, 
may account for the misfortunes that always rain thick and fast 
upon the heads of those who follow the teachings of spiritualists or 
dabble in the merchandise of mediums. 

When the embryo is born, the placenta perishes. This 
follows the universal law of earth; and every birth is typical of the 
soul's mode of creation. The human body is the carcase; and if it 
has any other use, the world of waiting philosophy would like to 
know it. Why we are born at all, is a mystery. Yet, since the 



SOUNDINGS IN THE SEA 



439 



method has been established, it may be said to be necessary to 
live in this life in order to furnish the soil in which immortality 
may take root. So the body perishes; sometimes fruitful; generally 
barren. For every blossom on the apple tree that matures into 
fruit, a hundred other blossoms perish, and rejoin the fund from 
which they came, to re-enter life's activities. 

CZMZ] 

The individual will survive. 

This is the 692d Ealston Principle. It means to state the fact 
as a law, that the personality and identity of the man or woman 
who is born anew, or in whom a soul is created in this life, will 
go on through all eternity as the same individual. This identity 
is fixed by the act of orgasm; and, until that act occurs, it is not 
fixed. When the seed of the flower is dropped in the ground, 
amidst the seeds of the oak, the elm, the wheat, the rye, and the 
weed, that single germ, taking life and root in all the complex 
mixtures around it, will survive as a flower, because its identity 
will be fixed the moment it germinates. 

If there were no soul-birth in the present life ; if all 
persons were to survive in futurity, the only law that could apply 
in such a condition, is the law of the transmigration of souls, going 
from one death to another, and getting worse all the time. Such 
a law is the offspring of a diseased hope. Theosophy shows its 
savage origin in the very fragrance it exhales; and its teachings can- 
not be true unless all humanity is to live again in tiresome repeti- 
tion, and finally graduate into the supreme council of fools. The 
law of nature tells another story. We must be born again. This 
re-birth is soul-birth; which, being accomplished, the sub-conscious 
faculty takes up the thread of life, leaves its shell, and soars to its 
perfect zone. It is through the new existence, which takes pos- 
session of the body and mind, that the future life is to be unfolded. 
Therefore the identity that survives is only that part of this life 
that appears in the new-born person. 

There is no survival of the mind or body; therefore 
memory, which is the tool of the mind, will not connect earth 
with the next world, except that the individual will know himself 
as the same being that was in this world. If you wish to ascertain 
the nature of the life to come, you may get a tangible knowledge 
of it by first uplifting your mind, body and heart to the plane of 



440 



IMMORTALITY 



perfect honesty; and when that degree is attained, if it is genuine, 
the act of orgasm will occur of itself, and you will then become the 
jpossessor of a soul-embryo, the evidence of which will appear to 
you in a flood of overwhelming testimony. This is the basis of 
the next race of beings, the immortals. Now, to understand them, 
you should remember three things: first, that an embryo is an un- 
formed life, you being pregnant with the germ only; second, that 
this embryo cannot be the life itself, for that is to take place in an 
after-era, amid new scenes; third, that beyond that after-era is 
to come the final state. These being true, you are left to realize 
the glory of the future by the exquisite bliss of the present; for it 
is safe to say that the new birth in this life is the acme of human 
[happiness. Although these things may appear as sentiments to 
those who are unfamiliar with the evidence referred to, they are 
in fact provable by scientific demonstration. 

The main reason why we believe that the individual 
will survive, is found in the fact that the next life is originated 
in this; and the process of germination and development in all 
past ages has accorded with this situation. There has been no 
epoch in which the new life of a succeeding period has not been 
sown in its preceding period; and the seed is sure to preserve its 
identity. We do not believe that any being of the next age will 
originate in that age. The butterfly does not come into existence 
as a butterfly. Christ was not sent to earth, clear-cut from Heaven; 
but germinated from seed to embryo; from embryo to foetus, and 
from foetus to life. If there is to be a new age, and a nobler race, 
mot one member of that better type of beings will spring from 
any other source than humanity. If there is any reason for our 
present existence, it must be found in some such use of the body. 
We are not born merely to die. Useless and worthless life no- 
where exists. What does not tend to good, is purposely bad. 
What is not an aid to human life, is destructive of it. The double 
plan is to use this physical body as the placenta in which to orig- 
inate an immortal soul; or else to prevent such consummation. A 
purpose being distinct, the body, with its mind and its yearnings, 
will be uplifted to the plane of the soul to which it gives birth as 
an embryo, and the individual must necessarily survive. 

The question of memory with its unhappy recollection of 
loved ones absent, is not a difficult one. This faculty is purely 
mental; and the mind is purely an earthly affair. It is a film of 



SOUNDINGS IN THE SEA 



441 



response, and lias no actual existence. You talk to the phono- 
graph, and the cylinder shows fine marks that are not readable to 
the eye. They revive under after-excitement. The brain is merely 
an accumulation of impressions of a like nature: and their after- 
revival under stimulus is called memory. Mind and recollection, 
reflection and contemplation, are but the accretion of such im- 
pressions, in the receiving of which the brain has been a responsive 
phonograph. If no impression is made on the mind, there is no 
mind. If no sound acts on the brain, there is no sound. Remove 
the tympanum from each of a thousand ears, and send a cannon 
shot detonating through the sky, rending the air, and rifting the 
clouds, and there is no sound, for there is no brain to respond to 
its action. From childhood to man, the mind is merely a collec- 
tion of impressions. 

The soul knows no such intelligence. It has a mind of 
its own, but that we call the sub-conscious faculty. From this, 
and through this alone, it comes into being, if it comes at all: and 
the future life is but an enlargement and an expansion of this kind 
of exalted earthly existence. Eeason is the tool of infidels. Purity 
is the tool of the soul. Eeason begets all the mischief of the 
world. The sub-conscious faculty never prompted a crime, never 
suggested a sin, never propagated a slander. Had man never had 
a mind, he would never have committed a wrong. The patient 
tree or the kindly flower thinks no harm, and offers no offense. 
The sub-conscious faculty is the blossoming beauty of humanity, 
exhaling only the purest life. It cannot reason: therefore it is 
capable of attaining perfection. 

What will become of the children, is a query that arises 
at this time; and the difficulty comes from the fact that the seed 
of the soul must find root in this life in order to develop a being 
in the next. As the parent is, so is the child: if the latter is under 
the age of puberty. When young men or young women have 
reached the years when they are endowed with the power to create 
other human beings, they are detached from their own parent 
stock, and their responsibility is fixed. Experience shows that a 
child under such age may be a part and portion of the father's or 
mothers existence; and we have never seen an instance of a man 
or woman who had passed into the new birth, unless the child, 
if there was any, had every indication of a similar conversion. 
The claim that clergymen, and others supposed to be saintly, are 



442 



IMMORTALITY 



often the parents of degenerate children, may always be shown 
to be faulty in that such parents themselves have experienced no 
real conversion. 

This planet will be a perfect world. 

This is the 693d Ralston Principle. If the question were 
asked, what reason is there for believing that the earth will ever be 
better as a dwelling place than it is to-da}-, the answer might 
readily be given, that it is now better than it was a hundred, years 
ago; it was then better than it was at the time Columbus set sail 
from Palos for the unknown continent: it was better in the time 
of Charlemagne than it was in the time of Caesar; dark as the 
great expanses of the globe were then, the condition six thousand 
years ago was still darker; and so it has been ever since. Julius 
Caesar wrote of the encircling barbarians that swarmed in the 
outer climes as far as his invading armies could be induced to go; 
and beyond that darkness all was rude mystery. 

Few persons are aware of the fact that the surface of the 
globe is now undergoing the most radical changes, all for the better. 
Man's advance into the American continent has changed its entire 
face. Many species of vegetation have become extinct in the last 
two generations. Forests melt away, and fertile farms smile in 
the places where once the beasts of prey, housed in dense woods, 
growled their dismal refrain to the screeching birds that caught 
the sunlight on their wings in the waving branches overhead. 
Even the arid sands are bearing the burdens of fruitage under the 
magic of irrigation. In Florida, in California, in Arizona, in 
Montana and Idaho, the energy of man has transformed the coun- 
try. Africa will slowly yield to the new impulses, as Australia and 
India are now doing. 

Change is the order of creation. In no period has 
progress stood still. Mutations have followed mutations, and never 
has one variation or digression tended backward. Every change 
seems to be instigated by an intelligent design, pushing it onward, 
whether it would or no, and keeping it actively moving toward 
something better in existence. We see an engine rolling up a 
sharply inclined plane, and its progress is never slackened; we 
know that some energy is urging it onward and upward. We see 
the earth emerging constantly out of one condition, and unfail- 



SOUNDINGS JN THE SEA 



443 



ingly coming up into another vastly better; and we know that it 
has a destiny, and that destiny is perfection. Thus, side by side 
with man's advance, the world itself is undergoing changes that 
seem ordained to keep pace with the improvement in the life that 
it bears on its surface. 

[ —694— ] 

The herald of the next era has already appeared. 

This is the 694th Ealston Principle. If we turn to the dry 
pages of geology, we find that there have been decisive leaps in the 
progress of the earth from one period to another; and the geologist, 
a man of very exact and unimaginative disposition, coolly records 
what to him is a strange fact, that each advance in the earth's 
progress has been anticipated through a forerunner. Every writer 
on the history of the crust of this planet has had something to say 
about the peculiar phenomenon: yet no one has seen a lesson in the 
fact. 

The first great period of geology is called the Archaean ; 
but that is strictly divisible into two eras; the first or lowest de- 
posits being known as the Laurentian, and those above being 
termed the Huronian. In the latter, or second era, vegetation was 
in a sort of foetus state; but a stray plant life appeared near the 
close of the Laurentian epoch, which was the herald or forerunner 
of the vegetation that followed. In exactly the same kind of a 
mission, the "dawn animal"' came upon earth at the close, or just 
before the close, of the Huronian period, and was in full reality 
the herald aud forerunner of the whole animal kingdom in general, 
and of the shell-fish in particular. Xear the close of the Silurian 
era, the first vertebrate appeared, and was the herald of all that 
division of the animal kingdom which teemed in great abundance 
throughout the succeeding Devonian age. 

So we might go on step by step, showing this process of 
heralding the approach of another epoch of history, and the coming 
of another race of beings, time without end, until the goal of crea- 
tion was reached. Man seems to have been in the mind of nature 
from the beginning. Prom rock to vegetation, from vegetation to 
the invertebrates, from the invertebrates to the vertebrates, then to 
the mammalia, up to the intelligent brutes, on to man, then to 
mind, and now to the soul-embryo, or snb-consciousness; each has 
had its herald; and then has come the full promise and the era it 



444 



IMMORTALITY 



foretold. Even now the next age and the next race have been mir- 
rored in the life of one man, who is lost sight of in the severe 
pedagogy of science. 

It is agreed that there is to be a better condition of 

this planet; and no one is so careless as to deny it. It is agreed 
that there is to be a further improvement in the life that occupies 
the earth. It is also agreed that the only channel of uplifting is 
in the sub-conscious nature, for there alone are found the hopes, 
the yearnings and the possibilities of a better condition. All these 
premises being agreed to, we are forced, by the strictest rules of 
science, of logic, and of mathematics, to assert that if there is to 
be, or has been, a forerunner of such an improvement, we must seek 
that herald by the aid of the light that bears upon the life to be 
expected. 

Since history began, there has been but one man who has 

answered this description. There has appeared on earth but one 
human being whose whole life, as far as known or seen, has been 
a total sub-conscious existence; or soul in flesh. That this is true 
may be found by the four Gospels and the letters that followed. 
It is demonstrated in every reference to the man, and would be 
established by the writings and doctrines alone, even if the man 
had never been recognized while on earth. The testimony of the 
four Gospels cannot be invention, although forgeries were used to 
prop them up in later ages. The contents of these Gospels pre- 
sent a sub-conscious life, and invention is powerless to enter such 
realm. More than this, it can easily be proved that, if the Gospels 
and letters of the Apostles were obliterated from the earth, there 
are extracts enough from them in contemporaneous private letters 
of the first century to almost completely rebuild the New Testa- 
ment. Aside from all considerations of religion, aside from all 
tests of faith, aside from all questions of reverence or devotion 
to the cause of the Church, there is abundant evidence to satisfy 
the most critical scientist that there once lived a perfect soul in 
human form, the solitary example of sub-conscious existence, the 
sole representative of the coming race, the forerunner of the next 
era, the herald of the new earth. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 



THE FINAL PLUNGE. 



[ 695 ] 

GIVLLIZATION will plunge to its ruin. 
This is the 695th Ralston Principle. It is not a pleasant 
one, yet it does not necessarily involve this generation. No 
one knows, nor can any person predict, in what century even, the 
parabolic turn of progress will precipitate the world to its catas- 
trophe. It may occur in ten years, or not in ten hundred. That 
there is such a law at work is clearly demonstrable. In addition 
to its existence as a fact, there are three phases that necessarily 
attach to its outward appearance: 

1. Ambition has ceased to exist. 

2. The responsibility of the individual is merged into the 
mass and thus lost. 

3. Those whose conduct is the cause of danger, see no danger. 
If you look into the heart of any people as a nation, or as 

a country, you will learn that the pride of the race is dead. What 
is true of the American nation is true of every great people on the 
globe; and we find the same law at work in each and all alike. For 
this reason we may be fully justified in tracing the future of the 
United States through the process of analysis, and prognosticating 
the fate of other nations by the clearly written destiny of our own. 
For several decades prior to the American Revolution, this country 
was passing through the welding process, and the greatest tensile 
strength was reached when Washington died. The apathy of the 
people during the early stages of the war of 1812 permitted the 
British to ascend the Potomac, and destroy the great buildings of 
the Capital; and then, for the first time, did the Americans realize 
that there was a war. From that period down to the present year, 
there has been a steady decadence of national pride and patriotic 
hope. As a unified people we are held together by the bonds of 
convenience. There are five sections whose interests can never 
amalgamate: the extreme East, the middle East, the South, the 
West, and the Pacific slope. Any one of these sections would be 

(445) 



446 



IMMORTALITY 



pleased to annihilate the other four. There is not a man or woman 
above the age of twenty-one who knows, or cares, what this country 
will be fifty years hence. 

The individual responsibility that gave to American 
citizenship, in 1776, its exuberance and glory, is now merged into 
the mass, and what is the duty of everybody, is the obligation of 
no one. This is seen in the attempted solution of any of the 
great problems of the age. Unless the bread of the people is 
directly affected, it is as impossible to arouse them to action in 
time to ward off a danger, as it was in the struggle of 1812; with 
this difference that, when the plunge comes, there is to be no re- 
action. This loss of individual responsibility is seen in scores of 
cases. For instance, the great tidal drift of the people away from 
the Profession of Nature — by which is meant the cultivation of the 
soil — toward the cities and into city life with its enforced poverty, 
is acknowledged to be the sole cause of continued hard times, for 
every city toiler is a non-producer, and cannot get bread for his 
labor except some food-producer ultimately gives it to him; yet 
the influx to the cities goes on, and the efflux adds a quarter of a 
million of recruits to the army of tramps every year. In another 
instance we see the steady increase of the negro population, now 
pouring into the North and West, soon to carry murder, rape and 
savagery into every town and county in the land. The danger is 
known; it can be stopped only by emasculation; yet the people 
who have power to stop it, reason within themselves that it cannot 
culminate in their generation, so they let it fester on. Then the 
fact that more millions are expended annually in the erection of 
new breweries and distilleries than are devoted in ten years to 
churches and school houses, is well known; and it is also known 
that these millions come out of the pockets of the laboring classes 
almost exclusively; yet those who might lift an arm against the evil, 
are silent for policj^s sake. 

The courts of law are webs in which the innocent are 
tangled, and through which the guilty are often able to jump with 
ease. The rules of evidence, the dragging process of trials, and 
the technicalities of legal lore, are spiders that suck the blood of 
the rich, and spurn the poor because they have no legal blood to 
be extracted. The judges, coming up out of the ranks of lawyers, 
are saturated with the unbusiness-like methods of the profession, 
and rarely ever decide a case on its merits, if some quibble, some 



THE FINAL PLUNGE 



447 



point of law, or some technicality can be resurrected on which to 
base a judgment. The chief purpose of courts of justice should be 
to protect the oppressed; but their wheels have invariably ground 
the oppressed to pulp, and scattered their blood in the dust. A 
man with fifty cents in his pocket and a just cause, stands as much 
chance of securing aid from the courts as he does from the Bengal 
tiger. There is a deep, rumbling, grumbling sound rolling in 
under currents through the breadth of this land; and, when the 
appalling thunderburst comes, it will lay low every judge and every 
court-house. Those who - have power to remedy this wrong are 
silent. 

The small accumulations of the people are compelled to 
bear the burden of taxation, while the incubus of amassed wealth 
either escapes altogether, or else is made to bear no more than a 
mathematical ratio of the whole; whereas it should pay all taxes. 
The result is that struggling worth and the yeomanry of the 
Eepublic must sooner or later be broken and destroyed. The poli- 
ticians of the country, now numbering millions of idlers and 
mouth-vaporers, are allowed to attack the business interests of the 
country in order to secure political power and patronage; and this 
they do by creating distrust, crying alarm, assailing their oppo- 
nents, and preventing permanent legislation by the agitation of 
new laws; until there is no business certainty in any part of the 
land. 

Evil after evil grows and climbs about the pillars of the 
nation, rotting them to the core, and making the ultimate crash 
a general and uniform toppling and crumbling of the structure. 
There is good in nothing. The cynic looks through green glasses, 
the pessimist peers through spectacles smoked with the fumes of a 
morbid disinfectant. Lay them aside. Get the whitest and 
clearest that are made; and, if you will, add a little of the roseate 
hue. Now look. There is spread out before you the great world 
of fact. The only real beauty is Nature. The only realm of hap- 
piness is home life in the bosom of Nature. The only Heaven 
that the immortal soul can contemplate in the long aDons of eternity 
is a land of flowers, of singing birds, of flowing brooks, of fragrant 
lawns and varied foliage, over which the soft-cheeked clouds float 
in idle beauty. There is a possible paradise on earth; but it is 
ignored for the sewer gas of city life. Humanity, with shelter, 
clothing and food in ample abundance, may extract the sweetesl 



448 



IMMORTALITY 



content and the full measure of happiness from the land, amid 
environments of health and learning; but this purpose of the 
Creator is prostituted by man, and true life is degraded. Now 
comes the harping shallow-brain, and says this claim is cynical, is 
pessimistic. Let us see. We ask one thousand men in the cities, 
which life they prefer; over eight hundred declare, "City life at 
all times." We ask one thousand women in the cities, and nine 
hundred and ninety despise the thoughts of farm life. In the 
country the percentages are nearly as large. God made the coun- 
try, yet the creatures of God prefer the work of their own brains. 
Farmers are boorish, coarse, and clumsily ignorant; not from 
choice, but because their betters have gone to the cities. The 
Wasbingtons, the Clays, and the Websters, are no longer found 
among them. God hated cities. He destroyed every one of them 
in Asia. His anathemas were hurled against these living sepul- 
chres. Not one withstood His wrath. He created the earth for 
man, and clothed it with beauties inexpressible; yet man has bur- 
lesqued the earth, and villi fied the farmers with terms of oppro- 
brium. 

Those whose conduct is the cause of danger, see no 
danger. When the grip of eternal hard times is fastened upon 
the throat of the people, these degraders of the earth, these villi- 
fiers of the only perfectly honest profession in life, seek to remedy 
the evil by political harangues, restless legislation, and an assault 
upon what little prosperity remains. They wish to make laws to 
thwart God's plans. As well might they pile up statute after 
statute to alleviate the sufferings of men who willfully live in 
sewers, and cry for fresh air. It is a provable fact that twenty 
acres of land will, if cultivated for home use primarily, and not for 
the markets, provide clothing, shelter and food for a large family; 
and there is more good land lying idle than there are families in 
America to occupy it. There is no solution for hard times except 
herein. The curse of God rests over every city. What has been, 
will 'be again. Yet you may look in vain for any man or woman 
who believes this to be true. Those whose conduct is the cause of 
danger, see no danger. A great bishop of this country recently 
declared that the nation had reached and passed its zenith. The 
devil, speaking through his mouth-piece, the newspaper, assailed 
the utterance as pessimistic. A man who lighted his pipe over a 
keg of gunpowder, marked the keg "roasted coifee," and applied 



THE FINAL PLUNGE 



449 



the epithets of ridicule to those who suggested that the situation 
was still dangerous despite his misnomer. He went hence. Those 
whose conduct is the cause of danger, see no clanger. 

Our white and roseate glasses need be turned in only 
one direction; for the view is the same everywhere. If you will 
name any institution of this nation, or any phase of its life, that 
you consider safe, we will guarantee that a close examination will 
reveal the fact that it rests on a bed of sand, or over the crater of 
a slumbering volcano. When the rag army marched from Ohio to 
Washington, the whole nation stood breathless and powerless be- 
fore the progress of this handful of vagrants. There were fifty 
million people who wished to join that army, but the time was not 
ripe. A mob in New York City may destroy a billion dollars' worth 
of property in a single day. The citizen soldiery and the police 
belong to the ranks of the oppressed and the discontented. How 
long do you think the shams of the national life would withstand 
the amalgamated assault of the wronged masses? The wealthy are 
growing wealthier every year; the poor are becoming tramps; the 
middle classes are dying out; the gulf that separates the extremes 
is growing to a bottomless chasm, whose tottering sides will topple 
and fall. All politicians, without exception, are robbers of the 
public treasury; and where they cannot steal openly, or through 
jobbing contracts, they go on creating offices for themselves and 
their co-conspirators. Legislation is dictated by the rich. The 
puppet of a corporation cries "fraud" the loudest in the United 
States Senate, but enacts no law to suppress the fraud, when it is 
an open fact that any honest statesman can block all the wheels of 
legislation until these wrongs are righted. 

A planet that stands still is an impossible anomaly. A 
few thousand years hence the surface of the earth will be as differ- 
ent from its present condition as this is different from that of two 
thousand years ago. The grass mounds of Babylon are the only 
enduring architecture of earth. The next step will be more glor- 
ious than the best yet enacted. Optimism reigns. Progress holds 
aloft the bright lamp of cheer. Down with pessimism! Civiliza- 
tion has turned the highest point in its parabolic curve, and its 
course is downward. With it will go cynicism to its grave. The 
promise is full of hope, the future is clear. 

Were you to come back to this planet a hundred years 
hence, it is possible that you might find Paris, London, Boston 



450 



IMMORTALITY 



and New York; but not a thousand years hence. Man may rebuild 
and preserve a city for a few centuries, but he cannot perpetuate 
it. God would not permit it. Xo city has ever stood a thousand 
years. The Chinese claim to be the oldest people in the world, 
with changeless customs; but the fact is, time has not spared them. 
Their country was formerly occupied by Turanians; but in the 
thirteenth century the Mongols conquered them, and in the seven- 
teenth century the Tartars obtained control. It is from these 
conquests, and the overrunning of the empire by foreign hordes, 
that they are known to-day by name and condition. Rome is 
called the eternal city, but its old buildings are ruins, and all that 
is stable is modern. Paris is not a century old; the structures that 
are here and there preserved being remnants only of an earlier 
date. Less than one per cent, of London can be traced back to 
the time of George III. The Alhambra is the most glorious remi- 
niscence of Moorish Spain, but it has been almost completely re- 
built in this era. The builders of American edifices of note are 
placing in the chiselled chambers of the corner-stones the current 
history of our age; but the men who discover them will not be able 
to read. 

When the change will come, no one but God can say. 

That it is sure to come, is an unchallenged fact. All agree to it. 
How it will come, can only be surmised from an analysis of present 
conditions; and this is not strictly a part of our work. Prophecies 
and predictions fail; but the trend of nature gives certainty to out- 
lines. Of the two hundred evils prevalent in this country at this 
time, uuless they are prevented by salutary measures, there must 
develop formidable agencies of destruction. The most dangerous 
of these is personal liberty. Imperfect men and women, as all 
are, wish to be left to their own drift, and seek to throw off all 
restraints; forgetting that ideal laws alone give safety to a com- 
munity. Personal liberty is so agreeable to the temperament of 
the nation that frauds are constantly on the increase, and a criminal 
must be tried by a jury of untried criminals. The greater the 
mind becomes, the .more evil it has power to concoct. Hereafter 
to be ignorant, weakminded, or non-vigilant, means abject poverty; 
for sharpers will skim all the cream from the milk of success. As 
ignorance and weakmindedness are on the increase, and as. the her- 
itage of a few generations of wealth is imbecility, it must follow 
that success will be confined to a narrow limit of population, 



THE FINAL PLUNGE 



451 



against which will be arrayed the brute strength and growing sav- 
agery of the nation. 

While this law is working out it.- destiny, there are 
collaborators aiding in the hastening of the result. The Sabbath 
is doomed, if the apathy of Christians shall continue. It i> the 
patronage of church members that sustains the Sunday press and 
those who advertise in them; let this patronage be withdrawn by 
the universal consent of all Christians, and advertisers would shim 
the papers, leaving them to instantaneous failure. Behind Sun- 
day journalism are the merchant Jews of America, who have lodged 
an oath in Heaven to destroy this day of rest, in order that their 
stores may be kept open seven days in every week. Among the 
stockholders, directly and indirectly, of the Sunday newspapers are 
the brewers and distillers of America, who have lodged an oath in 
hell to turn this fair land into one superb beer garden, where the 
stomach shall be king, and its eructations rise to the tunes of 
drunken instruments scraped by diseased musicians. If you utter 
a word against this sacred beverage; if, for instance, you tell the 
hygienic fact that beer produces rotten kidneys, you will see how 
quickly these papers become excited, and retort with falsehoods 
in the shape of statistics and analyses. 

The decadence of the church, if it occurs, will rob the 
nation of all the stimulus to purity that remains. This decadence 
will be due to the destruction of the Sabbath, the prevalence of 
stomach amusements in the form of beer and liquor parties, the 
delights of the bicycle, the supremacy of the Sunday press under 
the control of the Jews, the universality of fraud, the infidelity 
taught in nearly all the great universities, the lack of courts of 
justice for the oppressed, the widening of the chasm between 
classes, and the general distrust of everything and everybody. The 
clergy are afraid of the enemies of religion; and, instead of fight- 
ing sin in hand-to-hand conflicts, they spend four days in the week 
hunting for bread, and the other three clays getting butter for it. 
The Church must of necessity set every standard of morality and 
every ideal of duty: and when its influence is withdrawn, civiliza- 
tion will fall. The spirit of Luther, of Wesley, of YV hitefield. of 
Beecher, and of Parkhurst is sadly lacking; and the malice of tin- 
press, whose venom never fails to hiss at reformers, seems strong 
enough to prevent God's possible generals from entering tin 1 lists of 
battle. Hence it is reasonable to assume that the Church and the 



452 



IMMORTALLY Y 



Sabbath are doomed. The godless Jews stand with uplifted dag- 
gers, in concerted agreement, read}' to strike the blow through the 
Sunday press. They slew Christ. They will close the drama. 
From the advent of Adam to the maledictions of Malachi, they 
were an accursed people, and traitors to Jehovah. You do not be- 
lieve this. If you will collect together in one book from the verses 
of the Old Testament, which is the book of their religion, the sins, 
crimes, and curses attached to the Jews, you will have a black 
volume, the hideousness of which will out-darken the pictures of 
the inferno. The verses are there; they speak for themselves. 

Agencies of morality may stem the tide for awhile. 
If not, the first step toward the end will be the fall of the Sabbath; 
and, if present indications mature, this will occur in the next 
quarter of a century. England will be the last to give it up. 
Then, in another twenty-five years, the Church itself will suc- 
cumb. Even the Koman Catholic organization, with its better 
equipment, is now undergoing disintegration. The Protestants 
have been splitting for centuries; and they are now re-splitting. 
The third step will be political. Statesmen passed out long ago. 
AVe have left only politicians, demagogues and agitators; all ap- 
pealing to the means wherewith to get bread and butter. They 
will lead the masses to the edge of the precipice, and the .impetus 
of the stampede will hurl them, leaders and all, over. It is hardly 
possible that the people will educate themselves sufficiently to be 
able to resist the false teachings of politicians; for they must have 
guides, and demagogues always secure their attention first. 

It cannot be more than a half century hence when the 
masses of oppressed men and women will wreak vengeance upon the 
heads of those whose tyranny has placed their necks beneath the 
iron heel of poverty. It will probably be less than half that time. 
They are already resolved. An improvement of the situation is 
never possible; for what is the duty of many, is the obligation of 
no one. The reforms necessary would require the consent of the 
privileged classes, and this will never be given. That tyranny is 
always most to be feared which entrenches itself behind favored 
legislation. The mode of action is easily predicted. TVlien the 
Sabbath falls, and the Church goes with it, there will be no moral 
restraint to hold in check the bloody impulses of an enraged 
people. There are now thousands of secret organizations of men 
who strive to win their ends through victories at the polls. Seeing 



THE FINAL PLUNGE 



453 



the foolhardiness of such misguided efforts, they will, under more 
solemn oaths, bind themselves together in a way thai is not hard 
to understand; and desperation will bring courage. 

Riots at first will unsettle the peace of the cities. The 
court-houses and banks, the public buildings and private mansions 
will be razed to the ground. Men who have been ground down by 
poverty, and who have laid their hunger-slain children in un- 
marked graves, will not find it hard to kill the classes that have 
ridden rough-shod over their aching backs. They will exterminate. 
A tailor-made suit of clothes, unsoiled hands, and a refined face will 
become targets for unerring aim. Not one will survive. The 
sacred personage of Louis XVI., or the delicate beauty of Marie 
Antoinette did not stay the guillotine. After the pallid lips of 
insincere wealth have been made to bite the dust, the hoarded 
treasures will be looted, and millions of money, as well as millions 
of jewels, will run like rivers of water through the hands of the 
new citizenship. Unable to rule themselves, they will break up 
into tribes, and lash the one hundred million negroes into tempo- 
rary servitude. These, in turn, whetted by the odor of blood, will 
engage in secret murder, and their majorities will soon triumph 
by virtue of brute force. Before the twentieth century closes, 
a million negroes will swarm over the moss-covered ruins of 
Greater New York. 

All the oppressed nations of the world look to free 
America for inspiration and guidance. When she rises in arms, 
they rise in arms; when she mutinies, they mutiny; when she kills, 
they kill; when she exterminates, they exterminate. An elephant, 
bearing the weight of his master and his master's family, goes 
peacefully to his journey's end, little dreaming that their combined 
strength were as nothing to his own mighty power. There is no 
government on earth strong enough to cope with a determined 
resistance of its clown-trodden masses; and the latter will some 
day awaken to the knowledge of that fact. The nations will move 
in quick succession. As goes America, so goes the earth. 

The influence of the sun furnishes the vitality, the brain 
and the spirit of all life. Greater intelligence will open the lesser 
minds to a knowledge of their power. Malign influences are now 
storing away in the hearts of the privileged classes great cubes of 
selfishness; and in the souls of the oppressed, great bombs of re- 
venge. After the crash is over, the sun will do what it has always 



454 



IMMOR JALVJ Y 



done — unreel new influences. If present conditions should con- 
tinue, it would be untrue to its law. Under the new regime, chil- 
dren will be born with greater difficulty, and the population will 
lessen; for the next vitality of the sun will be unadapted to the 
humanity that now lives upon the earth. This has been the ex- 
perience of the past, and thousands of species have perished for 
want of congenial Tital nurture. Our conclusions are not dreams 
of fancy, but scientific deductions. Just preceding the dawn the 
dark curtains of night will envelop the planet, and the noblest 
structures will crumble to dust. 

Those who do not win immortality will be resolved 
to their funds. 

This is the 696th Ralston Principle. It is true on its face, 
without the necessity of proof, but it also assumes that some per- 
sons will not win eternal life. This is proved over and over again, 
and need not be touched upon now. That destruction, annihila- 
tion and oblivion follow some, if not all deaths, is believed by all 
civilized people: and no one will dispute it, except it be some 
weakling of modern society Christianity. Such doubter is a con- 
firmed believer in the Bible, but does not read it. Suffice it to 
say that that book declares, and repeats it many times under both 
dispensations, that all persons shall not be saved, that many shall 
inherit eternal death. In fact, this assertion is the strongest doc- 
trine of the Bible, and is clearly beyond the pale of questioning. 
Many are called, and few are chosen. A very meagre minority are 
tending in the right direction. About seven in every hundred 
Caucasians are candidates for immortality. We exclude all anti- 
racials, much against the good judgment of our less careful ad- 
visers; but when the clear calmness of a proved fact rests over the 
mind, we are willing to wait for the verdict of another age. We 
would believe if we could, but we are forced by evidence to deny 
that Malay, Indians. Xegroes and Chinese, who instinctively wor- 
ship savage deities, are destined for immortality. 

It is sensible to be wise, and wise to be sensible. When 
a dog dies, he yields up matter to the fund of matter; and this 
surprises no one but a grossly barbarous nature. He yields up 
vitality, exactly like the vitality of a human being, and this goes 
to join a fund of its own from which all animal life, from the 



THE FINAL PLUNGE 



455 



protoplasmic cell to man, has its origin. There arc noble brutes 
that die. The fine-grained and affectionate horse, high of spirit, 
and proud of mettle, yields up the same vitality. When a cell 
dies, its energy passes out to this fund. All animals are but col- 
lective cells and accumulated vitality. Man compresses more gray 
matter into his cranium than the brutes, in proportion to his hulk, 
and this excess of ratio is the sole cause of his superiority. Indeed, 
the relative portions of the races, from the lowest savage to the 
highest Caucasian, are dependent upon the measurements of their 
skulls; and the missing link between the savage and the ape is but 
a wide chasm in these measurements. If it is true that a beast 
gives up its vitality to a vital fund; if it is true that the monkey 
does likewise, it is equally true that man may die, and be resolved to 
the funds from which he came. There is nothing monstrous about 
the proposition. It is probable and amply proved. Opposed to 
it is not a single sensible mind on the face of the globe. A shallow 
sentimentality, snch as showers useless delicacies in the laps of 
fiendish murderers, may take a contrary view; and there is no harm 
done by the idle disagreement. 

[~ 697~ ] 

There are persons living to -day who will inherit 
eternal life. 

This is the 697th Ealston Principle. Of the various civilized 
beliefs, as the outcome of this existence, three command our atten- 
tion. First, there is the belief that all human beings will be saved. 
This is erroneous, as may be easily proved. Second, there is the 
belief that only the final race will be saved: and that humanity will 
live and die, and be re-born, until innumerable repetitions, ad- 
vancing through the exalting processes of evolution, will perfect 
each individual. This we do not accept, for it cuts off the worthy 
lives that have already passed the ordeal of earth; and it denies one 
of the fixed principles in the past growth of the world. Third, 
there is the belief that those who are born again in this life, will 
develop an immortal soul hereafter. This is the proved !'ai-t oi' 
nature, and the exact promise of the Bible. Before a single word 
of the Scriptures had been written, there had been facts enough 
presented in nature to have sustained all its doctrines of immortal- 
ity; although few, if any, of these facts had come to the knowledge 
of men in the olden times. For this reason we are convinced that 



456 



IMMORTALITY 



every doctrine of the Bible, as far as its relates to morality, religion, 
salvation, an eternal life is directly inspired by the mind of God. 
The book grows more wonderful the more closely we examine it. 
That much has been added by the hand of man, is too apparent to 
be gainsaid. God intended it for the salvation of the soul; man 
has attempted to dovetail it into history, and every mystery of 
science and creation. 

There has been no age since Caucasian man came upon 
earth, that has not witnessed the germination of soul-life, unless 
it be the time of the complete destruction of humanity because of 
its universal wickedness; or, perhaps, certain other eras of Jewish 
supremacy. That the cities were bad, is seen from the inability 
to find good men enough to be saved in the generation of Lot, when 
Sodom and Gomorrah were annihilated. Lot's family was the 
best, yet his wife was cursed with a monumental death, and his 
only children, two daughters, became pregnant by their father. 
Other cities fell under the curse; and- it is safe to say that few, if 
any, inhabitants of city life were saved to immortality. The same 
law holds good to-day. A man or woman may live in a city and 
not be in sympathy with city life; but one who enters into the full 
swing of such existence, stands as much chance of living after death 
as the brass idol does of entering Heaven. In Paris, the modern 
Sodom, and in Xew York, the modern Gomorrah, there are true 
men and women; but they are those who are openly and aggresively 
fighting the wickedness of these hot-beds of vice. You may take 
a scoop-net large enough to pick up one thousand inhabitants 
of Paris; you may operate it at will, catching any thousand you 
may happen to secure; and, on examination, the chances are 
overwhelmingly against your finding a single man or woman in 
the lot who is worth saving, even for this life. The Godless 
people, the Sabbath depressing masses, the lewd, lustful, salacious 
libertines that breathe only the defected air of Paris obscenity, with 
wine-stained blood and haughty hatred for moral codes, are all 
you will catch in your dragnet. With i^ew York it is better to- 
day; but the next generation will fall to the dregs of Parisian 
personal liberty. 

The atmosphere of cities breathes the contagion of sin. 
Few persons will take up country life — God's blessed provision for 
affluence and happiness in this world; and, because of this un- 
willingness to obey the decree of the Creator, the percentage of 



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457 



immortal souls will be smaller, and will grow less in eaeh decade, 
until the night shall roll its canopy over civilization, and opportu- 
nity be lost. In the latter part of the last century, and the first 
portion of this, when mansions and estates were queenly abodes 
for society, the people were nearest to God. Under the regime of 
city life it is impossible to live as nobly, or as well. Yet city life 
is defended by a vast majority of the best and the worst classes. 

Opportunity must always play an important part in the 
chances of salvation; for a certain justice, inflexible and inexorable, 
runs through all instances. The man, no matter how valuable he 
is to his people or to God, who happens to stand in the way of any 
fatuitous natural law will succumb to it, against all pity and all 
sentiment. So human beings that are unfortunately placed in 
this planetary life, must be re-ground to pulp, and re-molded to 
humanity, until better opportunities favor them. Ignorance and 
education, in their usual meaning, have nothing to do with the 
soul. The man who cannot read or write, and who is therefore un- 
able to ascertain for himself the knowledge of God through litera- 
ture, is as likely to reach Heaven as the philosopher or the sage. 
Education holds no priority of claim in the plan of salvation. The 
soul neither reasons nor thinks; it feels and knows. 

[ —698— ] 

There is no past. 

This is the 698th Ralston Principle. It is capable of being 
misunderstood. There was a past; there is no past; there never 
will be a past. All existence is everpresence. Whatever has hap- 
pened may provide lessons for our guidance or our understanding, 
but not fear for our future, if the everpresent is used profitably. 
We need not harbor anxiety, if we do the best we can at this time. 
The best that any man or woman can do is to attain perfect honesty. 
It is possible with every person to whom is given of God the power 
to understand what is meant by perfect honesty. There is no other 
course to pursue. The principle involves no creed, no difficult 
appreciation of finely drawn doctrines and religious tenets; but 
simply a determination of the will, and an adoption of the proper 
methods of living. 

There is no one who is perfect. This is true. But there 
is a department of existence in which perfection is possible, and 
that is honesty in thought, deed and word; although the instru- 



458 



IMMORTALITY 



ments may be imperfect. There may dwell in a person a perfect 
soul-embryo, and yet that individual may be quite imperfect. It 
is simply a fact that perfect honesty may be acquired, and is 
acquired: and when it is once attained, the birth of the soul fol- 
lows, otherwise not. Men and women pause at the threshold of 
this possibility, and shrink because the previous years of life have 
been crowded with sin; but we wish to assure them that when 
yesterday's sun went down, it drew the line that cut off and shut 
out all the past. The mind may think of wrongs done, but the 
mind is no part of the soul. When the latter is born, there is no 
thought of previous sin. There is no past. 

Remembering this merciful law, let every person resolve 
to make the present an immediate step toward the germination of 
an immortal soul. There is not a day to be lost. It is not an act 
of the mind, it is a resolution of the sub-conscious faculty. It is 
not arrived at by reasoning, for the operation of thought leads only 
to the devil. The poet, the artist, the orator, the author, the 
inventor, the makers of destiny, use the mind as a tool, not as the 
originator of their inspired efforts. Michael Angelo, expending 
the glories of his genius over the heroic pile of St. Peters, did not 
depend upon his reasoning faculties, for his soul was in his work. 
The more the mind thinks and ponders, the less likely it is to dis- 
entangle itself from earth. 

There is no more beautiful act in the whole scope of life 
than that which leads one to the resolution to adopt the principle 
of perfect honesty. Let it come by meditation, by inspiration, by 
giving oneself up to the influences of the sub-conscious faculty; 
but do not let it rest with a mental decision, for such is the mis- 
take made by all clergymen who admit applicants to the Church 
with no evidence of their conversion other than the desire to be 
converted, or a willingness to accept membership. This is purely 
mental, and therefore ungenuine. "All you need do is to decide 
to come/' says the exhorter, and so the soul is never saved. "While 
it is true that some are instantly changed, the general experience 
is otherwise. Time is needed. The willingness to make the test 
is worthless. There must be the overwhelming desire to adopt a 
life of perfect honesty. It cannot be summoned at pleasure. It 
cannot be conjured up. Some persons there are who will never 
be able to adopt such a life. To some it is not permitted, for they 
are incapable of realizing its necessity. 



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Advice as to what to do is not necessary, A person 
thoroughly in earnest, never asks advice in a matter of this kind. 
The past is cut off. It no longer exists. With it have gone all 
the sins, the wrongs, the crimes committed. Expiation is im- 
possible. In a world of imperfection, with errors and shortcom- 
ings as thick as snowflakes, there is no opportunity for a thorough 
atonement of the wrongs done, or a re-adjustment of the fruits of 
evil. The honest soul knows what to do. The best spiritual ad- 
viser is white-winged integrity. The habit of going about asking- 
persons to suggest some course of action, is a sure sign of in- 
sincerity, as well as of a weak character. All these problems should 
be worked out alone. The mind of the best individual on earth 
is not as wise as your soul. 

Let us suppose the step is to be taken. You go to bed at 
night, and resolve to commence at once a career of perfect honesty 
in every detail of existence, let the consequences be what they may. 
You will find help in acting upon that resolution when the day 
breaks. Thinking will do no good. No matter what your occupa- 
tion, business or profession, every deed of your life that tends to 
honesty is sure to straighten out the crooked lines of your nature. 
Acting makes momentum. Automatic habits are quickly acquired. 
Prayer, thought, wishing, yearning, are all weak beside the moun- 
tain strength of a deed. It is what your hands do, what your 
tongue says, that will accomplish the result sought. Do not worry 
about creeds, nor forms of conduct. If you are perfectly honest 
in word and act, the bent and twisted fibres of your nature will 
become straight, and when the last kinks have been taken out, 
the soul will manifest itself in embryo > and you will know it. You 
will have such all convincing evidence of its presence that not a 
shadow of doubt will rest on your life. Clouds will roll away, ami 
existence will dwell under the white sky of perfect pea 

[ ~^~ ] 
All creeds should become one. 

This is the 699th Kalston Principle. It deals directly with 
the problem that most closely relates to the subject under discus- 
sion. Many persons are so deeply impressed with the teachings 
of the Church that their poor minds, frail as reeds, are tossed 
hither and thither by idle scares. One believes that baptism is 
necessary to salvation, when the fact is. there are as many vm- 



460 



IMMORTALITY 



baptized men and women of to-day going to Heaven as there are 
from the ranks of the baptized. Fully ninety-three out of every 
hundred of the latter are unsaved, because their baptism is farcial, 
lacking the very elements of genuineness, the new birth and perfect 
honesty. Another person believes that baptism should be by im- 
mersion, or by sprinkling, or by dipping, or something else. Still 
another is afraid that the unbaptized infant is damned; and savage 
paganism of some similar sort haunts the shallow brains of weak- 
minded men and women. 

Then there are creeds and creeds about the seventh day 
of the week, the saints, the confessions, the sacrament, the tests 
of faith, the Scriptures, and everything and anything that diabol- 
ism can invent. With the most blessed subject to base religion 
upon, with a power in unification that would have been irresistible, 
the Christian Church has split into five thousand denominations, 
because as many creeds have been injected into its life. It is time 
to call a halt. It may be claimed that Martin Luther was the 
cause of this splitting; and for that reason all Protestants should 
go back to the Catholic creeds. This claim is untenable. Organ- 
izations on large scales should not exist. The welding of two or 
more distant Churches together is contrary to the purpose of God. 
There should be no Protestants and no Catholics. 

Let us examine this matter with the greatest care, for no 
mistake should be made at this time. In the first place, we have 
taken the facts as they exist in nature and in established annals of 
time and place; and we have proved that there is a personal God, 
who created the earth. This is the first corner-stone of religion. 
We have also proved the genuineness of Christ as the herald of the 
next step in creation. This is the second corner-stone of religion. 
The third is the fact that a sub-conscious faculty exists in the 
human body, which is not a part of lower animal life. From this 
arises the soul. Here are three corner-stones of religion. The 
fourth is human conduct, which must be perfect honesty. To sum 
up, we have the four corner-stones of religion: 

1. God: the Creator. 

2. Christ: the Herald. 

3. The Sub-conscious Faculty: the Soul. 

4. Human Conduct: Perfect Honesty. 

Before we proceed further we wish to know if you have 
any fault to find with this basis or foundation of religion. The 



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461 



more you examine it, the more you will be inclined to accept it. 
The time will come when you will fully agree with it in every 
particular. Now, what is the use of aggregate organizations of a 
denominational nature? It is through them that all the harm 
comes. Why should Church unification relate to the preservation 
of a general system of government, with, its power for bad? It 
does not need a power for good. If the Protestants should all be- 
come Catholics, the physical strength of the latter as a government 
would be dangerously increased; and the same would be true if the 
Catholics should become Protestants. 

You may ask any person what his religion is, and lie will 
reply by naming his denomination, never the religion of God, or 
the faith of Christ. Mr. A. is an Episcopal devotee, and believes 
the creed of that Church. Mr. B. is a Lutheran, English, German, 
Reformed, Unreformed, or what not, and believes the creed of that 
Church. Mr. C. is a Baptist, and a hundred Mr. C/s are as many 
different kinds of Baptists, each as wrong as wrong can be, except 
the particular one that the particular Mr. C. espouses. Mr. D. is 
a Presbyterian, and about live hundred splits in that staunch de- 
nomination have cast dagger points toward each other. Mr. E. 
is a Methodist, but what kind, or what branch? And so we might 
go on with the endless array of new and old beliefs, all creeds, 
creeds, creeds. Harsh and unkind as it may sound, it is neverthe- 
less a proved fact that every creed is the work of the devil, and a 
barrier to immortality. 

By this we mean that a true conversion, whether it takes 
place in or out of the influence of the Church, happens in spite of 
a creed. When the conditions are ripe, the new birth will occur: 
and the only thing that ever checks the development of the condi- 
tions, is some such diabolical inquiry as, What about baptism? — 
or, What denomination is the best? — or any of the thousand snares 
set by the devil to choke the life out of all hope. Before the great 
tribunal of honest opinion, the promoters and sustainers of creeds 
stand draped in the robes of contempt; and the time will come 
when their brazen idols will be hurled to the ground, and broken 
into fragments. It is not true that salvation can only be had 
through some specified channel. The poor man whose life is 
stranded in some far off shore, who never heard of God, Christ, 
or the Bible, if he is honest in his soul, stands a thousand times 
better chance of getting to Heaven than the exact creedisi who 



462 



IMMORTALITY 



performs every rite with punctilious servitude. The honest clergy- 
man tells the truth, and does not indulge in the solemn twaddle 
about the limited road to salvation, and the precise measures to 
he taken. 

Church organization perpetuates creeds, sends money 
out of the country, and accomplishes no other good. By organiza- 
tion, we refer to the government of a large number of churches in 
one great system or network. Thus, all the Methodist churches 
have their head in a larger organization; the Episcopals in theirs; 
the Catholics in theirs; and so on. These serve no real good to 
religion, and work incalculable mischief. Were they out of the 
way, union would be possible. In a town of two thousand inhabi- 
tants, there are eight different denominations; and the jealousies 
and quarrels have almost led to bloodshed. Sectarian feeling runs 
high in all places where the enterprise of opposing denominations 
exerts itself. We believe in the perfect organization of each in- 
dividual Church, and the co-operation and harmony of all; but 
every such organization should be a government to itself. It will 
never be better, nor worse than it is, no matter what censorship or 
guardian espionage may be exercised over it. The claim is made 
that it will fall away from its denomination. Good! That is just 
what it should do. Or the claim is made that the members may 
not be held within the strict lines of their religion. If truly con- 
verted, they will never deviate; and a dominant government will 
make them more lax, for they will expect more tutelage from it. 

If Christ were to come back to earth, what denomination 
would He favor? Would it be the Universalist, the Unitarian, the 
Catholic, the Orthodox, the Congregation alist, the Quaker, or 
what? Every minister who ever preached a creed, would hide his 
bead in shame; and the Catholics would hasten to cover their idols 
with black cloth. The God that made the laws of rectitude, never 
ordained a creed-grinding process to send human brothers into 
bloody war against each other, and precipitate all the enginery of 
hatred upon the earth. More murders have been committed in the 
name of creed than in all the battles of the world combined. The 
weakness, the hollowness, the despicable nature of creeds, may be 
seen by reference to the religious wars on a large scale in past cen- 
turies, and the persecutions, tortures, and deaths enacted in the 
private lives of men and women in their own native land. You 
very well know that, if the secular law did not intervene, the same 



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463 



blood-spilling, in the name of creed, would be resumed in this cen- 
tury. The creedists are just as bigoted, just as fanatic, just as 
cruel at heart as they were in the flower of civilization, in the 
Elizabethan period. Look to the recent trials for heresy in this 
country, and imagine the civil law silent; how long do you think 
it "would be before these thoughtful, God-like men would be broken 
upon the wheel, torn upon the rack, or immersed in midnight 
dungeons ? It was the Bill of Rights, the Magna Charter, the Con- 
stitution of the United States, secular instruments in the hands of 
lawyers, not priests or preachers, that gave to mankind the protec- 
tion from outrage that the creedists never would have granted 
down to the end of time. 

The time has come for a change, and to delay it will be 
dangerous. The great, sensible public are disgusted and nau- 
seated with creeds. The Church is not respected because of its 
creeds. The minister is not respected because of his creed. We 
asked representative Episcopalians, from various parts of America, 
why they were Episcopalians; and they replied, because a more 
refined class of people attended the churches of that denomination. 
It was the concensus of opinion. What does Christ think of that? 
The Catholics, with the best organization in existence, take more 
pride in their power and their growing predominance over all 
others combined, than they do in their sanctity. They fall down 
before images and idols, and pray to them; and all they need is 
another five hundred years in which to develop a profuse system 
of idolatry, including the actual images of Christ, Mary, the 
Apostles and countless saints, made of stone, wood and metal, 
the ingenious elaboration of which already takes rank with the 
pagan worship of Greece, Borne and Carthage. On asking Cath- 
olic priests why these images are worshipped and prayed to, we 
get the same answer that the ancient pagans might have given; 
they are idols of only the good and great, who have gone be- 
fore. Yet this is a Church that established the Inquisition and 
the Bastile, first burned girls at the stake, first tortured women on 
the rack, sold, and still sells, forgiveness for cash, confiscated large 
estates for the aggrandizement of its mighty organization, and 
throttled civilization for centuries by condemning every book of 
astronomy, geometry, geography and geology that did not teach 
that the earth was flat. If this Church, the queen of creed 
were not restrained by the secular law, how long do you suppose 



464 



IMMORTALIT Y 



the author of these truths would escape its dignified vengeance, 
the fagot or rack? 

A religion of love, of peace, of sweetest comfort, is the 
religion of Christ. Superb among the exalted aspirations of earth 
are its teachings and its promises. Never in all the history of the 
human race has so fair a blossom burst forth upon the world. It 
is the rose of purity. Beneath its petals, the conceit of pride, and 
the boast of pretense have placed the thorns of creed, and estab- 
lished a barrier to salvation. We believe the curse of Christ hovers 
over the life of every man and woman who preaches or advocates 
the creed of any sect. The time is ripe for a change, for a crystal- 
lization of the sands of religion into its perfect gem. The devil 
will kick vigorously at this suggestion. He will speak softly and 
insinuatingly through the voices of some, and with a show of right- 
eous indignation through others; but you may set it down as a 
safe fact, that no man and no woman, who has been born again, or 
whose religion is not a sham, will hesitate to accept the principle 
that all creeds should become one. 

You will aid in effecting this result ; but, above all things, 
do not participate in establishing a new sect, or a new Church. 
This has been the fault of scores of others, whose efforts have been 
rewarded with success: the} r have made more splits in the Church. 
There are to-day over one hundred new creeds that were originated 
solely with the idea of remedying the evil they increased. The 
first step to be taken is to cement together any two or more of the 
individual churches now in existence. Do not attempt to influence 
the entire organization, for its officials would fight to the last to 
save the fabric in which they take so much pride. As an example, 
we will take a real case for analysis. In a town of twelve hundred 
inhabitants, there is a Baptist church, a Methodist church, and a 
Presbyterian church. Each is capable of seating nearly three hun- 
dred persons. The average attendance is from fifty to sixty, 
although, the recorded membership is more than double these num- 
bers. The annual salary of the pastors is from six to eight hun- 
dred dollars; and it is rarely ever paid in full. Other expenses add 
seriously to the burden. Besides having to support the families 
of three clerg3 T men, the interest on the mortgages, the care of the 
buildings, the repairs, the heating, the lighting, and the incidentals 
place a severe tax on the people, all of which is uselessly tripled by 
the split in their creeds. But, you say, three churches are better 



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465 



than one. No, not when one is able to attend to the spiritual 
needs of the town. But, you say, the town will grow. If it does, 
it will follow the experience of all other towns; add more small 
churches. We know a Tillage of eight hundred inhabitants, and 
not the shiretown at that, having five churches; and, when it added 
another hundred people, it built another church. The jealousies, 
bickerings, quarrels, scandals and mean ill-nature that prevail 
among them, keep every sensible person, who moves into the town, 
from uniting with them. 

Despite the fact that the home mission plans of the 
denominational organizations aid in establishing new churches, 
and help to support pastors, in their earlier struggles, these are 
generally of a sectarian nature, and in opposition to other creeds; 
thus fomenting further jealousies. In a village of one hundred 
inhabitants, two conflicting churches have thus been built, and 
their pastors are partly supported by home mission funds; but the 
rivalry is so bitter that persons who seek Heaven will not unite 
with either of these malice-breeding institutions. Had there been 
but one church built at the cost of these two, it would have con- 
tained three times as many people; had a pastor of better calibre, 
and supported itself from local contributions. This is true every- 
where. Nearly all churches are taxed by the general government 
of their denomination, for expenses not attached to the local man- 
aging of each; as, for instance, for foreign missions, for home mis- 
sions, for extension, for decrepitude, for general expenses, and 
numerous other calls. By such means, much money is taken out 
of the locality. This is wrong. The way to Heaven is simple. 
.Let all those who are born anew meet together to sing, pray, and 
worship God under the guidance of the wisest man whom they are 
able to secure as their leader and pastor; and the more they con- 
centrate, or the less they split asunder, the better success they will 
have; the better standard of leadership and preaching they will 
acquire. 

The cities are fixed in ruts and never change for the better; 
yet, beside the large, fashionable and wealthy churches, there are 
thousands of smaller edifices, not so big as the average country 
place of worship, whose pastors are lank and hungry, disheartened 
and seedy; and creed-reform would be a blessing of the most salienl 
nature. But it is in the towns that the change must begin. Let 
the churches resign their connection with all government in their 



466 



IMMORTALITY 



denomination. Let them become self-supporting, and send no 
more contributions out of their own localities until poverty and 
irreligion are no longer found there. When a pulpit vacancy oc- 
curs, do not secure another to till it, but let the remaining pastor 
gather the people into one flock, with the understanding that he 
is to preach no creed, and is to follow the teachings of Christ just 
as closely as he would try to do if Christ were on earth at this time. 
By this plan the churches now split asunder will begin to unite. 
If you are instrumental in the least degree in aiding to obliterate 
any of the creeds of to-day, you will win favor in the sight of God. 

One of two things must happen, and the times are 
moving speedily toward the crisis; either there must be an end of 
all creeds, or else the Churches, Protestant, Catholic, Hebrew and 
all, must go under. The arrant nonsense, known as the seventh 
day of the week worship, is a challenge to the religion established 
by Christ. The seventh day, or Jewish Sabbath, was overturned 
and overruled by an angry God. The people to whom it was given, 
were cursed by their own Creator. He destroyed their cities, large 
and small; and He sent the luckless people, scattered and wander- 
ing in hopeless separation, over all the globe. They crucified His 
son, and He laid waste their kingly city in punishment. The 
whole Jewish people, with their sins that led to the annihilation 
by the flood, their degraded wickedness that brought on the de- 
structive tires of Sodom and Gomorrah, their idolatry, treachery 
and cowardice, from the murder of Cain, the first-born, to the 
betrayal of Christ the Savior, were eyesores in the sight of God, 
and when He dispersed them to the four winds of earth, He placed 
their Sabbath under the ban. 

It was on that blessed first day, not the last, of the week 
that He arose, and carried with that hope-laden resurrection the 
promise of immortality. The Jewish Sabbath, which is our Satur- 
day, is a Sabbath crowded full of idolatry, treachery, curses, death 
and annihilation. When Christ came, the hand of 'time moved 
forward; and Sunday, the day of life, of peace, of resurrection, of 
immortality, became the established Sabbath of all the civilized 
world. The Apostles hated wickedness; and the Jewish Sabbath 
was, to them, but a terrible day of the murderers of God — the day 
of the Jews. Any man or woman who pretends to love Christ, 
cannot worship Him on that murderers 5 day, and deny Him pref- 
erence on His own resurrection day — our present Sunday. The 



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467 



Jews do wrong, the Seventh Day Christians, Baptists, Adventists 
and all, do wrong to refuse to do full honor to the blessed Sunday. 
It was not on Saturday that God rested after creating the world. 
He has never rested, and the creation is still in progress. No in- 
telligent, thoughtful, unbigoted person lives to-day who believes 
there is the slightest authority for setting apart Saturday for the 
Sabbath of this era. 

Many of the worshippers of what they call the seventh 
day, and many Jews of the educated and nobler classes, the sincere 
Hebrews, believe that all Caucasians should unite in this mark of 
advancement, and recognize the present Sabbath. If the Churches 
do not fall, this end will be brought about. We plead for unity; 
but it must occur on common ground. There can be no absorbing 
of one denomination by another. Catholics will not become Prot- 
estants, and Jews will not become either; but the name and creed 
of each may be buried under the rock of honesty, and all Cau- 
casians may unite in one brotherhood of love and peace. While 
our criticisms may seem hard and harsh, even caustic at times, 
they are intended to meet the conditions as they exist. This is an 
age of pretense and fraud in every department of life. The person 
who denies it is wilfully dishonest. Facts must be spoken openly. 
Concealment and cheap veneering are wrong. We have told only 
the truth. Among our best supporters are the moral men and wo- 
men of the highest intelligence. Among our truest personal 
friends and fellow students are Protestant ministers, Catholic 
priests and Jewish rabbis. They do not get angry at our severity. 
They know that we despise the terms, Catholics, Protestants and 
Jews; and that we hope to see the day when the Catholic will be 
recognized as a brother, the Protestant as a brother, and the Jew 
as a brother; all Caucasians, all at peace, loved and beloved. 

They also know that the anti-racials are not our 
enemies by our choice, but by the decree of nature. We would 
deny justice to no human being and to no living creature; and not 
only justice, but mercy, forgiveness and forbearance should rule 
our conduct toward all that live. It is for this reason that every 
creed should be wiped out of existence, and all differences scattered 
to the winds. The great Caucasian race has not only borne the 
brunt of advance in all ages, but has been the sole standard-bearer 
of progress; and that, too, against the determined resistance of the 
anti-racials. The Caucasians have given the world ail the justice, 



468 



IMMORTALITY 



purity, honor, civilization, true religion and happiness that it has 
known, or ever will know. Why not unite them in one fraternal 
bond that shall tolerate no difference. of creed? There is no hatred 
equal to that inspired by religious jealousy. It has slain, tortured 
and horrified by its awful spectre more than two thousand millions 
of the best people of earth. Its malice, slumbering but yet moody, 
is seen in any town or city where two or more creeds exist. Those 
who are benefited by this system, defend it. The men whose living 
is earned in the profession of a creed, spurn all overtures toward 
abolishing it. But, apart from them, there is a genuine hope 
among the worthy classes of chnrch members for the extinction of 
this evil. A person whose conversion is not a sham, who is hon- 
estly born again, instantly repudiates even the creed that was the 
stepping-stone to the conversion, and knows only God as the uni- 
versal Father of us all. 

To sum up the facts of true religion, we present the 
following epitome as a guide to those who wish to do themselves 
and their Creator the highest service in this world. 

1. Immortality depends upon the birth of the soul in the 
physical body; and by this is meant the orgasm which establishes 
the embryo of the soul. That such an act takes place may be 
proved by the testimony of more than twenty millions of the most 
reliable, trustworthy and intelligent human beings of the civilized 
world of to-day. 

2. Only seven per cent, of the religious Caucasians, on an 
average, experience this new birth, and none among the anti- 
racials; as has been proved. This warns us to devote more atten- 
tion to our own race first, and thus be better equipped to do work 
elsewhere. Christ had this very situation in mind when He re- 
ferred to the blind leading the blind. ■ The Pharisees had taken 
offense at something He had said; and He still further incensed 
them by continuing: "Every plant which my heavenly Father hath 
not planted, shall be rooted up. Let them alone. * * * And if 
the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch." This 
shows that some are to be let alone, that some are to be destroyed, 
that some were not created by God, and that they shall be rooted 
up, which means destruction; for, when a plant is rooted up, that 
is the end of it. We thus see that Christianity coincides with 
science: for this law is written everywhere. As then and now, 
creeds were and are the cause of the blindness of the blind leaders. 



THE FINAL PLUNGE 



409 



3. The Church must always he the chief avenue to immor- 
tality; as its influence, when creedless, stimulates the development 
of the sub-conscious nature, which alone is capable of giving hirth 
to the soul. 

4. A conversion to a creed is generally a non-conversion of 
the soul-part of the human being; for which reason more than 
ninety-three per cent, of all church members are either pretenders, 
or are badly mistaken in their own condition. Ministers know this 
to be true, and it is the chief agony of their lives. 

5. The sham conversions, due to creeds, are undermining the 
Churches everywhere by the fearfully bad examples found where 
purity is expected. The orgasm of soul-birth is a fact in science 
as well as in religion. Its coming is a crowning glory which floods 
one's life with immaculate whiteness, from which there is no possi- 
bility of change, decadence or back-sliding; and hence there can 
be no bad examples among church members who are not shams. 
To show that religion also agrees with science, we quote the follow- 
ing from 1 John, iii. 9, — "Whosoever is born of God doth not com- 
mit sin; for his seed remaineth in him; and he cannot sin, for he 
is born of God/' — In the preceding pages of this book we have 
minutely described the process referred to here. 

6. Creed invites jealousy and competition, in addition to the 
diabolism contained in itself. The result is that churches, being 
too numerous in denominations, hasten to increase their member- 
ships, and thus invite to their folds great numbers of men and 
women who are not converted, except to creeds, and who, by their 
lives of hypocris} r , deter better men and women from becoming 
church members. 

7. The remedy for all this is in the abolition of dissenting 
beliefs, and the union of all believers in the Supreme God into one 
brotherhood, admitting Protestants, Catholics, Hebrews, and every 
sincere human being on the face of the earth, whose religion shall 
be known as the Religion of Immortality, and whose Church shall 
be known as the Church of Immortality. 

8. No new denomination should be started; but the work to 
be done must be in the form of amalgamating the individual 
churches now existing. They should be induced to act independ- 
ently of their general Church organizations, which they have a 
right to do. 

9. No new creed or religious principles should be taught; for 



470 



IMMORTALITY 



the Bible is a full world, a teeming universe of moral and spiritual 
guidance to mankind. If this planet should endure forever, the 
grandest product of humanity would never produce a work equal 
to the Bible. 

10. The basis of the Church of Immortality should be God, 
the Creator; Christ, the Herald; the Culture of the Sub-conscious 
Faculty, the Soul; and Perfect Honesty, the Kule of Conduct. 

11. The Bible should be construed as it in fact is: a book 
whose moral teachings are directly inspired by God; but whose 
historical, explanatory and traditional portions are interpolations 
and additions made by man. That this is the fact is known to 
every intelligent minister of Christianity. It is easily proved that 
many parts of the Bible of to-day were once nothing but marginal 
notes, once written by individual owners, but incorporated in the 

. text of subsequent editions. 

12. Under the principle of perfect honesty we have all the 
commandments; all the moral teachings of the Old and New Testa- 
ments; all the ethics of life; and every phase of purity, justice, 
love, honor, mercy, forgiveness, forbearance, and the blessed chari- 
ties of life. It is an angel whose broad expanding wings will up- 
bear the lowliest creature of earth, even to the gates of Paradise. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 



HEAVEN ON EAKTH. 



[ 700 ] 

THE Immortals will arise from sleep like exhalations 
from the ground. 
This is the 700th Ralston Principle. From the fact, 
as has been clearly proved, that the seeds of vegetation, or the vege- 
table kingdom itself, must have sprung from the barren rock by the 
direct influence of some power, probably that of the sun, it is not 
difficult to believe that the same process might be repeated in this 
later world. Man himself, as we see him in the Caucasian race, 
is not older than six or seven thousand years; and, as he has had 
no ancestor known to science, or possible in science, it must follow 
that he sprang from the earth as spontaneously as the first plants 
took root in the rocks that had been subjected to a heat many times 
greater than was necessary to destroy all the germs of vegetation. 

The sun is the tutor of this planet, If, without it, all 
things would die, it must be true that its influence is vital, and 
"vital" means all that man contains in his being; his mind, his 
faculties, his hopes, his aspirations. It is universally admitted 
that all the matter of the earth came from the sun or the sun- 
source, which shows a common origin. If matter is so derived, 
then, as matter is the carrier of vitality and mind, the faculties of 
man must have been born in the sun or in the sun-source. If this 
proposition is not true, there is but one recourse, and that is to 
the doctrine of the direct gift of the Creator to man of every part 
of his being; and this doctrine pleases us better than the science 
of the matter. 

In bringing this work to a close it is very difficult to 
avoid being influenced by the imagination, as we attempt to pic- 
ture the condition of the earth when the next period of progress 
shall have occurred; and, under the circumstances, it is better to 
omit all such description, unless there is some tangible fact on 
which to rest it. Throughout the great length of the book we 
have adhered to plain, dry, hard truths; some pleasant, some un- 

(471) 



472 



IMMORTALITY 



pleasant; and the same method should prevail to the end. It may 
be as well to state that we are brought face to face with three 
inquiries: 

1. Is there an influence at work in the progressive advance of 
the earth? 

2. Is this influence from the sun? 

3. Is there a higher power behind this influence? 

It is agreed that, if the first of these inquiries must be 
answered in the negative, the future is all a blind conjecture. Let 
each reader be candid with self, and seek some actual proof for 
whatever affirmative belief may be maintained. After these pages 
have been read and re-read, a glance here and there will disclose 
facts upon facts which have been lost sight of in the first perusals. 
Thousands upon thousands of pieces of testimony are presented 
from scores of standpoints, and these all bear upon the question 
now before us. The most ardent infidel, if he has a trace of 
honesty left in his nature, must be compelled to admit that there is 
an influence at work in the progressive advance of the earth. 
Each step is a regular bettering of all conditions. 

This "position is assured. Yet when we look at it more 
closely, it is not enough of itself to prove all that we would wish. 
The satisfaction of knowing that we are in the care and keeping of 
some guiding power, is dampened by the fact that such power looks 
more to results than to details. Every effort is made to keep the 
race alive; but the individual must look out for himself. From the 
earliest information that has come down to us, all through the 
'^struggles of man to maintain his hold upon earth, no other law 
has tempered the seTerity of this inexorable decree. Many an 
individual has succumbed to the buffeting waves of nature, and yet 
the race has traveled on. The cry ever where has been: "Man is 
nothing, mankind is everything!" Burned in fire, drowned in 
water, starved in famine, destroyed in cold, falling beneath the 
stroke of summer heat, or perishing like reeds before the blasts 
of disease, man is uncertain of a day's existence; yet nothing but 
the fiat of a superior power could terminate the race to which he 
belongs. The influence, therefore, which is at work is directed 
toward some greater end than the making of an individual. As a 
unit, nothing is done for a man that he can do for himself; as a 
race, every help is given that is needed to preserve and better it. 
The influence is associated with the sun ; but that does 



HEAVEN ON EARTH 



473 



not imply that it originates there. That orb may be merely a 
distributing agent. All we know of a certainty is that life on earth 
at this time is dependent upon the sun; if the latter were with- 
drawn, we would die. ~Nor can it be said that the sun's warmth is 
all that is needed. There must be light as well; and with light 
there must come vitality. The theories that set forth the hypoth- 
esis that the sun and the planets came from a common source, 
cannot be maintained. On the other hand it is quite clearly 
demonstrated that the sun has thrown off the entire solar system; 
and. it is easily proved that the sun is diminishing while the earth 
is growing, the other planets probably increasing likewise. Under 
this line of proof the two important facts stand forth : first, that the 
material part of the earth is derived from the sun; second, that life 
in every form is derived from the sun. These being true, it is 
certain that the progress which has been taking place, has occurred, 
under the tutelage of the sun. 

Is there a higher power behind, this influence? The 
constant proof of mind in matter is so abundant, and so over- 
whelmingly convincing, that it might seem as if the Creator were 
omnipresent and diffused throughout all the universe. In a drop 
of water there are millions of cells, each containing a mind; and 
if there are millions of minds in so small a compass of matter, 
what must there be in the living kingdoms of earth, in sea, sky 
and land? In this wide diffusion of intelligence we see the im- 
mediate creative power of all life; but it is supplied from the sun, 
either now or in the past; and is itself dependent upon that orb 
for its own existence. Therefore an influence employs it, and it 
is but the agency of that influence. This leaves us without an 
answer to our inquiry; for the fact that there is a universal intel- 
ligence in matter proves nothing. 

It is when we see this mind working elaborately and 
faithfully to some certain end, with conclusive evidence of special 
adjustment in large and small degree, that the master power is 
manifested. Few persons think in two directions at the same time, 
or they would be quickly convinced of a supreme power beyond 
and behind the sun itself. In a recent conversation with a noted 
evolutionist, who could not see a personal being in the works of 
nature, but who believed that man had been evolved out of the 
mere accident of drifting growth, we succeeded in converting him 
by a single question; and, although he required time to examine 



474 



IMMORTALITY 



it in all its bearings, the inquiry was too much for his theory of 
evolution, and he acknowledged that there must be a supreme 
power behind all life and all creation. The question was this: If 
man is the result of the accident of drifting growth occupying 
millions of years, how does it happen that his food, containing the 
exact elements of his body in their exact proportions, as in wheat, 
barley and corn, were being evolved at the same time so as to be 
ready for him when he appeared ? The scientist thought it strange 
that the query had never occurred to him. Many such questions 
may be asked. A multitude of facts are set forth in the preceding 
pages of this volume that prove very clearly the presence of a 
Creator in the universe, and particularly in the onward and upward 
march of life on this globe. 

This is our basis, and it is one that cannot be shaken. Let 
us see where it leads us. The geologist delves deeply into his re- 
searches only to become amazed at the stupendous jumps that have 
been made by the earth. He may not be a man of religion. He 
generally discards the Bible, or starts without it; but the hand of 
a controlling being is at length manifested to him. He examines 
the barren and sterile rock of the old Archsean age, and beholds 
evidence of a fire hotter than any flame that now burns on earth; 
yet, in the next step, he sees the vegetable kingdom taking root in 
the dust of the rock where that fire has been; he knows that all 
the air and sea were rolled in a vapor of heated gas, in which all 
seed germs would have perished instantly; he knows that proto- 
plasm and coll life could not have existed a second in, on, under 
or above the earth; yet he sees it springing into growth in another 
era, and he asks himself the question that must stagger the most 
obdurate agnostic. 

It is not enough to say we do not know. That answer 
makes man a brainless animal. We do know. We know that the 
universal heat in which every particle and every molecule of earth 
was enveloped, from the center to the last extreme of gaseous air, 
was more than sufficient to destroy the smallest vestige of life or 
of life-germs: and certainly it is very easy to kill the germs of 
vegetation at a low heat. This much we know. Agnosticism is 
dishonest. We further know that the vegetable kingdom, and the 
animal kingdom after it, sprang forth from barren rock-soil. Ag- 
nosticism is childishly dishonest. We know that seed, or root, or 
germ, or cell never could have originated in any part of the earth 



HE Ay EN ON EARTH 



475 



after that destructive heat. Here are three things that cannot be 
passed over in silence, or shelved away upon the plea that no one 
knows whether they are true or not. They are facts, and will 
remain unchallenged to the end of time. 

It is not difficult to lodge another fact in the midst of the 
three. We will start with an earth known to he ban-en; we will 
proceed to kill every possibility of life by burning the air until it 
is red hot, the water until it is white hot, and the earth from 
center to circumference until it runs in a ruddy molten stream; 
and then we will make the vegetable kingdom in all its glories 
grow in that sterilized rock. How will we do it? We must look to 
a fourth fact — the arrival from some source beyond the earth, of 
the germs of vegetation. But how could they be brought here? 
If from the sun, have they not been subjected to the same heat? 
The vitality of the new kingdom undoubtedly came from the sun, 
but did the life, the seed, the cell, the plant, the living protoplasm? 
Cornered by these exacting questions, we are compelled to admit 
a special creative act as being necessary. Some call it a fiat. It 
was in fact a grand orgasm; and this means the making of some- 
thing out of nothing. 

The first kingdom on earth was that of vegetation, in 
which the forests found their infancy. It sprang forth like an 
exhalation from the ground. Could we have been there to witness 
its birth, we would have seen the oft repeated miracle of our own 
springtime enacted without a first cause; and, comparing it with 
the grinding rocks, whose tiresome monotony filled all the expanse 
of earth, we would have looked on in surprise and wonderment as 
the strange shrubbery, the hitherto unknown grass, or the modest 
mosses bubbled forth out of the unattractive sand. No more was 
needed. Once started, all the long succession of life was guaran- 
teed. It was not a descend from preceding conditions. It was 
a breath, an exhalation, seemingly born in the air and ground at 
one and the same time, as though by instantaneous impulse. 

Few scientists are willing to admit that a fiat gave birth 
to anything new. They prefer to assign it to the process of evolu- 
tion, not knowing that, if a new life is produced by a gradation 
of change, it is just as marvelous as if it had come by a direct 
act of the creative will. They frankly tell us that man was made 
out of a shell-fish, yet they cannot make man out of the highest 
life; and they do not stop to think that it is just as stupendous a 



476 



IMMORTALITY 



piece of workmanship to make man out of a shell-fish as to make 
him out of a rock. Evolution is a process that has no beginning 
and no end. To give it an origin, and to lead it to an end, must 
require an omnipotent God. If you take a budding stem in your 
hand in the spring, and study its unfolding growth, you will be 
convinced that the silent impulse at work in that little world is 
evidence of a miracle in nature; yet it has plain immediate causes. 
The giant tree pushes and strains to throw out its wealth of new- 
born foliage, and soon a mass of living garniture stands forth 
against the sky. The landscape stretches away in undulating 
carpets of green; the forest is banked against the outer line of the 
horizon; the flowers paint vivid pictures along the hillsides, or dot 
the meadows with their starry opulence; and the Heaven-resem- 
bling display in this little earth of ours is full of beauty, and 
replete with marvels of glory; yet it came forth out of the sterile 
rocks by command of the imperial sovereign of the sky. 

This world is material and vital. Each is a division by 
itself, and yet each is interwoven in the other. Matter has been 
growing better from its first appearance to the present time. Life, 
or the vitality in matter, has been likewise improving. The best 
in the material division of this planet is that which most excites 
the admiration and pleases the soul of humanity. The dog, even 
in the height of his intelligence, cannot tell a flower from a leaf. 
No beauty of landscape, or dreaming picturesqueness of idly drift- 
ing clouds affords pleasure to the noblest horse. Most men are 
in the animal plane; they kick at a flower, and coarsely inhale 
the dainty fragrance it emits, with no knowledge of its presence. 
He who nurtures these beautiful emblems of Heaven, cannot be 
altogether bad. As religion is the budding forth of the soul in 
man, so the flowers are the crowning jewels of the material king- 
dom. In the remote ages of the past they came out upon the 
earth like exhalations from the ground; and so the better race of 
life, the immortals, will appear in the swelling fulness of the com- 
ing era. 

It would be intensely interesting if we could look forward 

To the dawning of that epoch; but the facts are not discernible 
from this distance. The outlines are all we have to guide us, and 
these are accurate enough to afford some little help; and they may 
be safely trusted as far as they have language to speak. They 
appear in two classes of evidence: 



HEAVEN ON EARTH 



477 



1. The advance of matter. 

2. The advance of life. 

We shall look at these separately, and see what help they 
afford us. The material world exists in three divisions: 

1. Inanimate matter. 

2. Inanimate life. 

3. Animate life. 

As these belong to the first class, despite the fact that they 
in part are present in the second, they should he considered as mat- 
ter. Our purpose is to look ahead. 

By inanimate matter is meant all that portion of the earth 
that is incapable of entering into the vegetable or animal king- 
dom. In the past it was once nothing but rock. In the more 
recent past it was rock, soil, iron, brass and other minerals and 
metals. To-day it is all these and more. Man from time im- 
memorial has unearthed gold and silver, as well as jewels of rare 
and exquisite beauty. In looking ahead, we must expect to be 
told that whatever is best in metals, in minerals, and in jewels, will 
prevail above all else in the kingdom of inanimate matter. This 
is an assumption for which we have no warrant except the story 
already written by the hand of destiny. Xo one can safely predict 
what the details will be in that better age, when all that is best 
has been produced. The only fact we have of which we are sure, 
is in outline; and that tells us that there is a decided progress 
going on, reaching from the lowly past to the termination of all 
improvement, the goal of earth. 

There is more to this fact than at first appears. What 
has already taken place in the advance of the inanimate matter 
composing the earth, has kept pace with the improvement of life, as 
though in harmony with it. What could be rougher than the unin- 
viting rock of the first era? Even when vegetation began to clothe 
the nakedness of the bald globe, it was scant and marshy, dank and 
dismal. In the millions of years that were required for the develop- 
ment of the forests, the improvement had not been any greater than 
in the other departments of progress; the surface of the ground was 
rough, wet, soppy and uninhabitable. Xot one line of beauty had 
appeared. The earth grew better in time, and was far advanced over 
its early condition when the white race discovered America; but 
this was uncouth even then. If you will look at the pine groves 
in the sandy counties of Georgia, or the harsh rocks of the momi- 



478 



IMMORTALITY 



tains of West Virginia, you may obtain some idea of the still in- 
complete nature of our globe. 

It is because the present conditions are an improvement 
on the past, and because there has been a constant uplifting of all 
matter out of lower state, that we believe the same progress will 
continue, even as long as the earth stands. As the past stands 
as the interpreter of the future, we may apply its laws as follows: 

1. The present era of matter will continue to improve, as it 
is even now doing with visible rapidity. 

2. There will be a halting or plunge before the opening of 
the next epoch. 

3. The next era will be a decided leap forward. 

4. From the beginning to the end of the next period there 
will be a steady progress for the better. 

The foregoing laws apply to all conditions. At this time 
we are discussing inanimate matter. The only part of the problem 
that remains is in the nature of the improvement. While there may 
be new glories in the material construction of the earth yet to be 
discovered, we have already an abundance of wealth for the most 
brilliant of worlds. If the crust of this planet were to change its 
position ever so slightly, who knows what might be upturned to the 
face of the sky? The precious metals may rest beneath its bosom, 
but a short distance away; or they may come to us from the sun's 
future influence; or they may be now in process of development. 
Diamonds are simply made, and employ the cheapest material for 
their construction. The very changes that produce them may 
occur in the interval between this and the next age. It cannot 
be that they are accidents; for so much of beauty rare, of fiery 
scintillation, of many-colored reflection, can hardly be the offspring 
of crude chance. 

Imagine a world where all the glories of matter are 
carefully presented for the delights of its inhabitants; where silver 
and gold, diamonds and rubies, and every manner of precious stones 
are outlaid and imbedded in road and wall, arches triumphant and 
temples magnificent, where they reflect the rich exuberance of some 
spring morning, or cluster in bouquets of splendor to please the eye 
and stir the soul! All this is possible, for it is all heralded in 
the gifts now lying in significance at the feet of mortal man. As 
we look for the herald of the coming race, as we see that every 
advancing step in life and matter has had its forerunner, so with 



HEAVEN ON EARTH 



479 



equal reason we may expect the inanimate soil to send us some 
announcement of its opportunities for betterment. We grant that 
this is speculative; and we admit that it is an assumption of detail; 
but we are sure that the outline is true. By this is meant the 
general structure of the change. Something for the better will 
occur. This planet is full of wealth, and its possibilities are un- 
limited. If all the pearls that thus far have been extracted from 
its grasp, were to be brought together in one country and one 
possession, they would shame the rock-ribbed hills of more than 
one State, for their combined beauty would suggest a new era and 
a new clime. It would seem another world to see the glittering 
strings, the iridescent wreaths and opulent garlands of these pure 
gems, outlying before us, overspreading our vision, entwining the 
forest branches, bedecking the foliage, or clustering about the 
flowers that open some new well-spring of happiness in their every 
glance. Yet these are but pearls, and one of many material jewels 
that abound in nature. 

Her resources are unlimited in variety and wealth of 
fascination. The glories that hide themselves in blushing modesty, 
and come forth only upon the most searching invitation of man, 
are yet sufficient to dazzle the world if any one in its kind were 
to be brought together in one land. There are many millions of 
diamonds, large and small, already in the possession of the race; 
and limitless resources doubtless dwell in the bosom of the planet. 
Let us imagine them displayed with some regard for order, so 
that their collective strength may be seen at one time, and in one 
general effect. Only that power which established the law of 
crystallization, and made the muddy carbon shine in resplendent 
clearness, laden with the changing color of the sunlight compressed 
within the tiniest compass, can spread the richest of earth's jewels 
about the pathway of man, so that the purpose of beauty may be 
fully understood. These little heralds of that better age, these 
sparkling eyes of sunny nature, bear in their diminutive fires the 
story of a more congenial sun from whose furnaces they caught 
their glowing rays. Let them glitter in seas of sheen, and light up 
the meadowlands of a new earth with their inviting lustre; let 
them roll beneath the limpid waters of delightful brooks, or stud 
the shores with laughing pebbles murmuring their many-tuned 
songs; let them realize in hanging blades of grass and rustling 
leaves, the dew-crowned fancies of summer mornings; let them 



480 



IMMORTALITY 



poise on petalled flowers, or cling in pendants to the skirts of 
perpetual blossoms; let them blend their own white gleams with 
the tints of sister-gems, ami cause the crude soil of earth to burst 
forth in raptures of harmonious colors; and, added to the meagre 
scope that man's mind is able to suggest, let them obey the man- 
dates of their Supreme Creator in new arrays of glory far excelling 
the fondest pictures of our dreams. 

To live in palaces of marble, beautiful granite, or other 
rich stones taken from the quarries of our little planet, may be the 
highest ambition of this day; but what is regarded as splendor 
now, may be easily outdone by a single stroke of nature in another 
age. The inspired apostle saw visions of cities whose streets were 
paved with pure gold; and it is not unlikely that this metal may be 
profusely abundant in a better era than ours. We are sure that 
the material structure of the globe will assume its most gorgeous 
garniture; for we have with us heralds of that approaching epoch. 
The precious metals, and the pleasing rocks are not alone in their 
devotion to the call of the advance. Diamonds and pearls may set 
off the display of agate and onyx; the many-hued shells of the 
ocean may be laid at the feet of the fairer prizes; emeralds and 
sards may crown the beauteous beryl and chr} T solite; jacinths, 
sapphires, carbuncles, ligures, and their companion gems may wait 
upon the topaz, the amethyst, the turquois, the jasper, the carnel- 
ian, the garnet, the chalcedony, the opal and the ruby, in one 
united effort to deck the earth with the dazzling splendors of 
jewels and crystals. 

Animate matter must play its part in the coming epoch. 
We have seen what are the j)ossibilities of the earth in its lifeless 
realm of cold beauty; and now our attention is called to that in- 
teresting kingdom in which all plants, trees, grasses and flowers 
grow. Like the line of life, like the ascent of matter, this middle 
dynasty has ever been reaching upward in its tendencies. There 
has never been a moment when a fixed goal was not kept steadily in 
sight. As our knowledge of the future is indicated by the progress 
of the past, and as we know that we are floating near the crest of 
the swelling wave of advance, we may safely say that vegetation 
holds a destiny of its own. Thus far it has kept pace with the on- 
ward march of man, serving him at every turn; and it cannot desert 
him at the time of his triumph. The forests, the fields, the plants 
and the flowers will stay with the earth to the end. Their improve- 



HEAVEN ON EARTH 



481 



merit, as already achieved, gives promise of the perfection that is 
yet possible. 

It might be sufficient to claim that perfection of the 
present vegetable kingdom is all that need he sought in order to 
make it a fit companion for Heaven on earth. This of itself is a 
great step, even if the Creator adds no more; but, as man is con- 
stantly adding more in the flowers and foliage of his own culture, 
it is certain that God can do as much. But this part of our theme 
is speculation. What we know is sufficient for the present dis- 
cussion. To achieve perfection requires, first, that the weeds, the 
thorns, and the poisons of the vegetable kingdom be destroyed. 
More than two-thirds of all plant-life tends to weeds. An evil in- 
fluence seeks to choke out the very food of man. In the flowery 
realm, the drift is always toward a degeneration. The beautiful 
roses dwindle to a less attractive state, unless some better spirit, like 
that of careful culture, holds them true to their parentage. Thus, 
as now constituted, the better part of vegetation must fight for 
self-preservation against the direct enmities of weeds and ten- 
dencies of neglect. Herein they are human in their helplessness^ 
and few survive. Even the thorn that lurks beneath the rose is a 
piece of savage design. 

Not until the clevil is driven out of earth will weeds and 
poisons be destroyed. If he is to remain here always, they will 
also abide as steadfastly. But progress means the extermination of 
Satan. That he still holds a controlling power over both the ani- 
mal and vegetable kingdoms is conceded by all who have given 
thought to the subject. That this power has been lessened in the 
present psychozoic age, is freely admitted. In the battle between 
the two hosts, the banner of victory is signally displayed upon the 
ramparts of the future, and time only is needed for the extermina- 
tion of the foe. Then all that is vicious and malicious will cease to 
exist. Man now is almost completely in the power of evil; then 
he will be totally extricated from this oppression. In the vege- 
table kingdom there will be no weeds, no thorns, no poisons; noth- 
ing that is baneful. Then the finer tendencies of growth will 
develop all the beauties that field and forest, plant and flower are 
capable of bringing into being for the pleasure and happiness of 
man. 

A world clothed in nature's best attire, is not an 
unattractive prospect. When perfection is reached, change is use- 



482 



IMMORTALITY 



less, and death must be unknown. There should be trees without 
falling leaves, flowers whose petals do not fade, and verdure that 
must endure through all seasons. The very idea of completion 
implies the absence of death. The condition of imperfection re- 
quires death to bring about the changes that may lead on to the 
making of the ideal. These axioms being understood, we need 
only to create, in our fancy, the appearance of this planet when 
that perfect age is attained. ITngrowing and perennial flowers 
would be a novelty; yet the deductions of logic permit no other 
result. If there is no death, nothing will die. If nothing will die, 
that which is alive will continue alive. Under this doctrine every- 
thing will maintain its existence to the end of its destiny. 

There is so much beauty in a tree that, when the autumn 
frosts ripen and destroy its leaves, a feeling of sadness displaces our 
admiration of its pleasing effects. The rose is undoubtedly the 
queen of the garden, yet its petals fall with the passing of a breath, 
and an ugly stub remains in our hands, armed with sharp thorns. 
The lily fades in an hour. All that is entrancing in the wealth 
of nature, succumbs to the law of change. This rule will be re- 
versed in that higher court. There will be leaves whose texture 
will remain impervious to all assault; trees, whose branches will 
never break; grass that never dies; flowers that never fade; and the 
earth will be as much better than the gardens of our highest cul- 
ture as these are better than the dismal swamps of long ago. 

This permanence of foliage will not prove tiresome for 
the reason that it will be variable and variegated without limit. 
The evergreens of our day are not all alike, and diversity then will 
outrank variety now. Our Arbor Vitse trees appear in ten present 
classes, all distinctly separable in kind, with smaller shrubs bearing 
the same name. The yew has no less than six varieties; the spruce, 
eight; the pine, fifteen; the cypress, three; the retinospora, four; the 
podocarpus, two; the juniper, twelve; the fir, ten; and others one 
or more; all classed as evergreen trees. Then there are the weeping 
poplar, willow, ash, mulberry, linden, birch, elm, cherry, cornus, 
beech, and others of their kind. Among the deciduous trees are 
the well-known elm, maple, linden, laburnum, alder, tulip, laurel, 
rosemary, thorn, poplar, mountain ash, maple, sycamore, oak, 
aralia, walnut, hickory, pecan, almond, cornus, beech, birch, crab, 
catalpa, cypress, magnolia, acacia, chestnut, balm, locust, and num- 
erous others; to which should be added all that wonderful wealth 



HEAVEN ON EARTH 



483 



of tropical growth, of which there seems no limit. Let these ap- 
pear in their best attire, arranged under the guiding eye of a 
definite design, and they are capable of adding grandeur to all the 
groves of the new earth, to which the old Arcadian will seem a 
mere commonplace; yet they are but the trees of the vegetable 
kingdom. 

The plants, the hedges, the shrubbery and the flowers are 
too extensive in kind and in effect to be enumerated. There are gar- 
dens whose profusion of fragrance and color has dulled the senses 
by the exquisite pleasure produced; great banks of growing carna- 
tions, rivers of roses, broad beds of tulips, wide sweeps of lilies, and 
pansies, heliotropes, violets, petunias, salvias, and numberless others 
lending their enchantment to the scene. Man loves flowers. The 
higher his quality, the more he appreciates them. Some purchase 
them, others hire them cultivated in expensive conservatories; but 
the man who most enjoys the lessons they teach, and the promises 
they exhale, devotes his own attention to their culture. To use 
them for adornment, or to value their fragrance as one prizes the 
extracts that are bottled up for sale, is not to love the flowers as 
gifts of God. They are emblematic of true religion, than which 
there is no fairer thing in life. All nature tends to blossoming, 
and the aspirations after immortal hope are the crested flowers on 
the stem of civilization. In the bettering of the kingdom to which 
they belong, the ever present tendency must be to bring them 
forth in all their richest robes, and drown the plainness of this 
world with their gorgeous splendors. 

Rivers may run in majesty to the ocean ; brooks may 
travel through meadowlancls or by the groves of fragrant trees; 
cataracts may roar and fall in their old-time grandeur; fields of 
pleasant grasses may stretch away to the horizon's edge; avenues 
of flowers may extend as far as the eye can reach; and life may be 
one continuous song of nature, in that age when all things shall 
become perfect. With ponds and lakes rocking upon their heav- 
ing bosoms the reflection of summer skies, in which floating lilies 
lie idly tranquil; with nooks and dells embowered with gems, and 
garlanded with jewels, which glister through the living fragrance 
of many-hued flowers; with paths that lead across fields of velvet 
green, under crystal arcades, or through the forests whose wide- 
armed branches are burdened with their drooping weight of lux- 
uriant foliage; with hill and vale, mountain peak and flowing 



484 



IMMORTALITY 



landscape, and all waterways of earth made richly beautiful by the 
best life of nature, the immortal man will find a happy welcome 
awaiting his approach. Music will not be forgotten. Birds will 
fill the forests, if animal life appear at all; or it may be intended 
that the harmony of sound, the notes and chords of song, shall be 
borne by the tuneful brooks and trembling branches of the trees. 
Sweet music is divine. Fragrance is born in Heaven. Colors are 
glances of God's eye. These appeal to the higher senses. Taste 
and touch are mortal, and have no sure place in the hereafter. 

But what of man himself? What will he be in that age 
when all imperfections shall cease? As has been said before, the 
fact that perfection has been attained implies that further change 
is unnecessary; but this relates to the physical conditions that 
govern the progress of physical development. It need not lead to 
the inference that the soul is incapable of advance. When physical 
perfection is attained, there will be no more changes of the body 
or of any part of the body; consequently there will be no death. 
The flesh that will encase the soul, if any at all is needed, will be 
perfect in form, in quality, and in use. Not perishing, it will re- 
quire no food; there will be no supply of solids or of water, no ex- 
cretions, no respiration, none of the functions of circulation or 
digestion. The man of that age will neither eat nor drink, for 
these habits would imply waste, and waste is the forerunner of 
death. 

In form his body would be suited to the conditions just 
stated. It would contain no canals for the ingress and egress of 
matter. The skin would be poreless, for there would be no fluids 
to be exuded. There would be no lungs, no heart, no stomach, 
and none of the organs that now attach themselves to the process 
of digestion; as there will be nothing to be digested. The shape of 
an immortal body is necessarily a subject of interesting study. 
What we here present is founded upon the laws that tell us in un- 
mistakable language that man will improve until perfection is 
reached; and upon the further law that there can be no death 
when a body has been made perfect. The position is not only a. 
reasonable one, but it is a forced one, whether we depend upon 
science or logic. It is therefore a satisfactory study, for it keeps 
within the channels of certainty, even though the details of descrip- 
tion and of form are assumed in larger part. 

We believe that the man of the perfect era will be active, 



HEAVEN ON EARTH 



485 



for God is an active being. If so, he will have legs with which to 
walk, and hands with which to help himself; and this would imply 
that his body would retain its present shape. As bird-life is a part 
of the animal kingdom, and as the air is a medium of travel, it is 
not unreasonable to assume that man will have much less weight 
than now, and that he will possess an advantage equal to the winged 
messengers of our atmosphere. Having a wide dwelling place, 
twenty-five thousand miles in circumference, and being of a social 
nature, he would instinctively desire to pass from place to place 
with all possible speed. The water-ways are always conducive to 
slow progress. In the air, a highly vitalized body, possessing a 
minimum of resistance, would compass the globe in a brief period 
of time. This part of our description is, however, speculative, 
although fully warranted. It seems as if it must be true from 
necessity. 

Although gravity would play its part in the future 
earth, as all laws are eternal, yet the lightness of man's body, and 
the vitality peculiar to his new powers, would render him immune 
from all danger. God is best manifested in works that display an 
electrical intelligence* and it is quite probable that man will be 
an intelligent electrical life, having the faculties of hearing, of 
seeing, and of appreciating fragrance; all of which the soul is now, 
even in this existence, mortal though it be. Such a being could 
walk, could fly, could run, could have boundless knowledge of 
earth, and possess all the rich pleasure of a ripe intelligence. He 
would walk erect, for crawling is serpentine and debasing. He 
would not tire, for weariness implies a breaking down of tissues, 
and he will have none to be lost. If he could fall, he would escape 
without injury, as his own superior vitality would have power to 
reverse the law of gravity, and to protect him from collision. 

Will he talk ? It is true that soul-life implies a perfect use 
of that faculty which, in the present race, is known as the sub- 
conscious function; and this includes telepathy, or the power of 
knowing the will and mind of others. If such faculty shall exist 
then, it would seem as if one person might delve into the thoughts 
and feeling of others without restriction. It may be that secrets 
will be unnecessary, and therefore worthless; or it may be that the 
owner of the faculty of thought may determine how far another 
shall intrude upon such domain. Conversation may be an aid to 
this power, and a convenience in the interchange of ideas; in which 



486 



IMMORTALITY 



case a mouth, teeth, tongue, throat, air, larynx and vocal cords 
would seem necessary: but this we cannot believe. What is said 
may be uttered by a mouth so constructed that it need contain no 
teeth for mastication, no tongue for taste, no throat for swallowing, 
nor any of the aids and adjuncts of eating. Song, if expressed 
vocally at all, may find other channels of utterance, and so may 
speech. We believe that man will be free from all dependence on 
the laws of matter, except in the most general way. The sense of 
hearing, of sight, of fragrance, and the use of a special faculty of 
speech may cause him to have the same shaped head as now; 
shoulders, arms, hands, torso, legs and feet may also be the same for 
reasons previously stated; and man in the new era may be a repro- 
duction of the same form as that we now see. He may talk and 
sing from the use of vital organs of speech operated by his superior 
vitality, without the aid of air. We may, therefore, believe that 
this is God's image which we now wear, and that it will be the same 
to the end of time, and through all eternity. 

What will be the sexes ? The bride and groom are part 
of the plan of nature. If God is the Creator, the earth is His 
bride, and the soul His offspring. There is a meaning and a 
purpose in the division of life into two ?exes; for they are not 
necessary merely to propagate each species. It is a universal con- 
dition, and prevails from the lowest organism up to mail himself, 
that one sex should be necessary to the other. It came as a sur- 
prise to scientists when they discovered that flowers are sexed, some 
being male and some female; and that barren results are due to 
the lack of proper mixing. It cannot be claimed that offspring 
require father and mother, except that it is so decreed. If human 
beings were without sex, they could as well generate their young 
as they do now. To the horse, the dog, the lamb, the cow, or 
other of the intelligent beasts, the father is of no value to the 
young in its being reared and cared for, as this duty devolves solely 
upon the mother. So in a state of nature the women of the human 
race, especially in the lower ranks, have had the care of their 
young, the male parent being almost unknown. Outside the tribes 
of affectionate birds, there is hardly any evidence of the pairing 
and dwelling together of the sexes, except in cases of isolation, 
until we ascend the higher rungs of the ladder of civilization 
among the human family. 

Birds are metamorphoses of the reptiles. They are also 



HEAVEN ON EARTH 



487 



used to typify the aspirations of the soul. They have the highest 
regard for the marriage tie, and dwell in the exclusive homes built 
by their own industry. The male and female share alike the duties 
of protecting and nurturing the young. In the human race, wher- 
ever love outlasts passion, there is such a bond of fidelity estab- 
lished that death cannot separate the lives thus joined. There are 
few such marriages on earth. The bride and groom of this life 
are surely a part of the better life that is to follow. They are sexed 
not merely to obey the instincts of parentage, which could be 
better obeyed if there were no male and female divisions of the 
race; but they are parts of the purpose of creation, and become 
the unit of the expression of love. The very essence of love is 
mutuality. It is everywhere flowing into the universe; and it 
bubbles up in the lives of all noble men and women. Our earthly 
existence is short. It means all or nothing to every human being 
who comes upon earth. It is not only helped, but is greatly up- 
lifted by this divine flower, love; and this beautiful symbol of 
eternal happiness should take its wings on this planet in this era, 
and thus be prepared to enter full upon the pleasures of Heaven 
in the next. 

Happiness is supposed to be a part of immortality; but 
very few persons know what that peculiar quality is like. It is not 
easy of description. We find love to be the mainspring of all true 
existence, but it must be an enduring and unchanging love. We 
find it most readily exhibited in the typical condition of all exist- 
ence, the affection of the bride and groom for each other. The 
evidence is not lacking of both these laws, for they seem to be as 
old as mortality. Our idea of genuine happiness, such as may be 
expressed in an endless career in a new world, is taken from the 
following circumstance. A lover, who had been held in doubt for 
many weeks as to the regard which the object of his affection might 
have for him, found her estranged, but not through a dislike for 
him. It seemed that her love had been long nurtured, and was 
just ripening. The clouded uncertainty was as much a source of 
trouble to her as to him. A slight estrangement followed. Desir- 
ing to be sure of herself, she asked the delay of a week or more; 
and this, to him, was a long interregnum of time. At length, one 
bright morning, there came to him a dainty note, saying that her 
heart was his, and asking him to call that evening. From the 
moment his fingers opened the love-laden missive to the hour when 



488 



IMMORTALITY 



ids footsteps brought him to her side, there was a long and joyous 
reign of pure happiness, every second of which was a full volume 
of song and cheer. No skies ever shone so brightly before; no 
glancing rays of sunlight ever fell upon earth with such merry 
brilliancy; no trees and flowers ever seemed so full of approving 
and sympathetic rapture. All was peace. All was profound joy. 
People came and went before him all day, but they spoke kindly, 
and every face was wreathed in smiles. He never knew there was 
so much pleasure in the hearts of others, or that earth could beam 
so gladly upon all mankind. If you wish to know what happiness 
in Heaven is like, think of that interval of time, and of the lover 
who waited for the evening hour. 

Perhaps there is no more sacred tie in all eternity than 
that which is born of the love of earth. .For this reason we believe 
that marriage should be understood, when entered upon, as being 
intended for one purpose or another. If it is for love, all else must 
stand aside; all considerations of wealth, comfort, or convenience. 
If it is for station or for mere home life, it should be so understood 
between the parties. Passion is often mistaken for love, and there 
are those who enter the wedded state only to be nauseated in a few 
days by its wearisome disappointments. Unless true love exists, 
there is no hope of happiness. Many ladies, or careless women, seek 
to gain an alliance that extricates them from the unpleasant situa- 
tion of loneliness, or that seems to be an advantageous one; yet all 
such live to repent bitterly of their selfishness, which most grossly 
led them to take the step. Men, in other ways, make a similar 
mistake. Some love without reciprocation; but if a true man loves 
a woman worthy of him, she will respond with her full nature, for 
his own heart will not open of itself; and the same is true of every 
woman. If the half crazed and morbid nervous sj r stem of shallow- 
minded persons can be left out of the reckoning, and set down as 
erratic and unreliable specimens of presumed passion, we will find 
that true love is a casket whose lid is opened by a key turned by the 
love of another; and that this law is reciprocal; which, being true, 
it must follow that all true hearts respond if morbid influences are 
withdrawn ; and there are no real estrangements and disappoint- 
ments in life. If the eccentric and muddy-hued expressions of 
unbalanced minds are entertained, they will do incalculable dam- 
age; and all persons who are subject to such assaults should cut 
loose at once from those who make them. 



HEAVEN ON EARTH 



489 



The wife who loves her husband will never re-marry, no 
matter what the temptations may be. The husband who loves his 
wife, will remain single after death has separated them. Some 
are several times married before they find the true love for which 
they seek. In youth, when the temper is high, and the mettle 
strong, it is easy to fall into the error that has often gone un- 
rectified. Boys and girls have tied knots that time almost in- 
variably unties; and a subsequent love has ripened for others. This 
is the will of God, and the expressed law of man. Deplorable as 
the accident may seem, it is better to miss the mark and hit it 
afterward, than to wear a chain about the neck while the heart 
groans beneath the loathsome load of hatred. Seventy out of every 
hundred of marriages, subsequent to the first, are founded upon 
true love, and are made to rectify the accident of a first mishap. 
That God approves of such efforts to obey His will, is overwhelm- 
ingly attested by the Bible itself. It is true that there will be no 
marrying in Heaven, and no giving in marriage, for there will be 
no reason for it; although the typical union of love is depicted in 
the nineteenth chapter of Eevelation as taking place in Heaven 
in the hereafter, with marriage and a wedding feast. 

Husband and wife will find each other in that better 
world, and the question of the conversion of one, and the non- 
conversion of the other, cannot enter into the discussion of that 
matter. There is no higher type of conversion, and no better 
evidence of the birth of the soul, than a steadfast fidelity and pure 
love. Religion could aim no higher. Home on earth is the key- 
stone of existence. The Church, the Bible, and all the discipline 
and tenets of religion pale before the holy influence of that purest 
of all conditions, a model home, wherein a faithful and enduring 
love reigns supreme, where thoughts and language are chaste, 
where loyal fidelity binds heart to heart and mind to mind, and 
every blessed impulse mounts upon the duties of the daily struggle, 
and leads the way to love's great victory. There are such homes 
on earth, and there the soul lives. By the very magnetism of their 
purity they are drawn Churchward and Godward. Certain inexor- 
able laws are true. If the husband truly loves the wife, she loves 
him. If the wife truly loves the husband, he loves her. Where 
there is true wedded love, there the sub-conscious faculty controls 
life, and there the soul has come into being by the orgasm of the 
new birth. Despite supposed facts of great strength that do appear 



490 



IMMORTALITY 



to the contrary, it is nevertheless universally true that every mem- 
ber of a family wherein love dwells is born on that higher plane 
that means an immortal inheritance. 

What will be the avocations in that realm of perfection? 
Here we are tempted to speculate as to details; but it is better to 
confine this discussion to the fixed outlines that bear the stamp 
©f certainty, telling alone what we cannot know. Perfection im- 
plies completion; this renders death impossible, for death is but 
a process of change intended to lead the way to perfection. Death 
occurs in two ways : first, in the collapse of the individual; second, 
in the constant waste and replenishing of the material used for 
daily sustenance. Herein food is made essential. Unless there is 
to be daily loss and supply, food will not be necessary. For this 
reason, all those duties and lines of industry that are employed to 
produce food, will come to an end. The immortal being will 
neither eat nor drink. Fruits, grains, and all edibles will be un- 
known. The farmer will be without a farm; nor would the soil 
respond to seed if he had them to sow. There will be no bakers, 
for bread will not be eaten. Pastry, confectionery and similar 
concoctions will remain consigned to the oblivion of a long past 
of suffering indigestion. The business of all who are associated 
with the producing or preparing of food will be ended. Dealers in 
grain, elevators and warehouses, and vessels of commerce will not 
appear. 

How far shelter and clothing may be necessary, is a 
problem that is not easily solved by any fact or law that seems 
applicable to the question. We have a definite guide to the solu- 
tion of the other matters, relating to eating and the industries that 
depend upon it; and through them we may be able to arrive at 
results in the former cases. Plant life and animal life furnish all 
the shelter and clothing thus far known, except in so far as min- 
erals and metals have aided in the construction of houses. Life 
of any kind, whether of the animal or vegetable kingdom, implies 
supply, waste and death, if it involves growth. Our clothing is 
hair, wool, linen, cotton or silk. If it is hair or wool, it comes from 
animals, and they must die in one form or another in order to 
supply it. If it is silk, it comes from worms, under similar con- 
ditions. If it is cotton, or linen, it is grown upon plants with 
exactly the same laws at work. Therefore we are compelled to ex- 
clude all questions of clothing from the life hereafter, as we con- 



HEAVEN ON EARTH 



491 



aider it impossible that there could be any obtained. Neither will 
it be necessary. As to abodes of dwelling, the mansions, halls, 
palaces and edifices of magnificence, all evidences point to their 
existence on a scale of the most sumptuous grandeur; but how they 
are to be built, and by whom, it is not possible to offer even a 
suggestion. 

The professions will cease this side of eternity. The 
preacher will not be heard, for there will be no unsaved souls. 
Sunday will not be distinguished from other days, for there will 
be no Monday, no Tuesday, no Wednesday, no Thursday, no Fri- 
day, and no Saturday. The sun itself, made more congenial in its 
new temperature, and more even in its all-embracing warmth, will 
still be the master energy of earth; and for that reason, it would 
not be improper to pay tribute to its kindly tutelage by the uni- 
versal observance of its nameday — Sunday. To that orb we owe 
our vital breath. To the sun we owe the energy that keeps in 
motion the ceaseless machinery of the heart. To the sun we owe 
our light, our life, our impulses of thought, our mind's vitality, 
our cheerfulness, our happiness. To the sun is due all obligations 
for the earth's growth, its trees, grasses, plants and flowers. Its 
glowing warmth releases the ice-bound streams, and they pour forth 
their music in singing brooks and joyous little rivulets, murmuring 
without fault as they dance and bound onward to the sea. The 
coal we burn is the stored contribution of sunlight caught millions 
of years ago, and buried beneath the surface of the earth. The 
oils that give us light, the gas, and electricity, are parts of that 
energy. So is all fragrance, all color, all beauty. So is the flavor 
and relish of food, and its qualities of sustenance. With all these 
obligations resting upon us for the blessed gifts of that one orb, is 
it asking too much to hold sacred that one day of the week which 
bears the name of the king of the planetary system in which our 
earth is an humble member; to revere as the agent of God the day 
on which Christ arose from earth, and bore with Him to Heaven 
the fragrance of forgiveness; the day of all the week that suggests 
most, and imparts most clearly, the lessons of the loving care of 
the Creator — Sunday? 

There will be no doctors in Heaven for there will be no 
invalids; no physicians, for there will be no one to be physicked; 
no surgeons, for there will be no need of knives and saws; no 
dentists, for teeth will be left in the grave. Court-houses will 



492 



IMMORTALi TY 



he unknown. Judges will have no cases to try. Lawyers will 
find no disputants with grievances to be adjudicated. The wrongs 
of earth will be buried in the grave, and justice will triumph. 
Legislators will make no laws to govern the unruly and protect, 
the obedient. Even the rules of right and wrong, and the straight 
lines of religion will be as unnecessary as prison bars or instru- 
ments of punishment. All professions will disappear, unless it 
be that of the teacher. The conclusion of the whole matter seems 
to be that work and business, employment and the means of in- 
dustry will be determined by other rules and other conditions 
than those which apply to the present life. Some authors have, 
maintained that the callings, the vocations and duties of our 
existence here will be pursued hereafter. This would imply sin 
to be eradicated by the minister; and that is a self-contradiction. 
It would also imply wrangles and quarrels to be settled, and ill 
health to be mended, and bad teeth to be tinkered, and limbs to 
be amputated, all of which is challenged by the very state to which 
we refer — the age of perfection. 

To the hard and practical mind all this seems like a 
dream. Yet America was a dream four hundred and ten years 
ago. The past is a dream to-day. The unimpressionable man, 
who will not believe a brick is hard until it strikes him on the 
pate, will content himself with the prospect of a continuance of 
the conditions as we now find them, adding the same relative 
amount of improvement that is already being enacted to the ages 
that may follow; and he neither sees nor knows any end to it all. 
The conceited scientist, and there are a few left, has no belief, 
but simply hedges himself behind the claim that no one knows 
anything of the future. This is wrong. We are travelers, and 
as such we are in duty bound to inquire whither the way leads. 
Blindness is inexcusable when light may be obtained, although it 
comes through chinks, and in small quantities. 

Time is never concerned in the history of the past or 
future conditions of the earth. It is enough to speak of periods. 
Laying aside all question of time, it is certainly safe to assert that 
the future is sure to outleap the present in every respect. !N"o one 
believes that this earth is to remain the same, or nearly the same, 
as it now is. Even if there had been no progress in the past to 
guide us in these conclusions, the very fact that obscurity framed it 
from us would prove the present uplifting of the planet and its life. 



HEAVEN ON EARTH 



493 



The comparative freshness of the present era of the earth, the 
extension of man's migrations across the Atlantic to a hemisphere 
that was unknown to civilization, and the similar conquest and sub- 
jugation of Asia and Africa that is now going on, shows the high 
advancing march of the Caucasians, and points unmistakably to 
greater changes in the future. We say all this would be apparent 
to the students of the psychozoic era, even if there had been none 
other disclosed in the preceding epochs. But all knowledge that 
comes to us confirms the story of progress and change. 

The present race will continue until the hour shall strike 
for ringing down the curtain. When that will be, no one knows, 
nor can man ascertain; no mind can grasp it; no prophecy detect 
it. Out of the lap of present humanity that metamorphosis will 
occur which has been spoken of before; the change that shall close 
this era, and open the next. It is probable that all animal life will 
disappear, and in the following order: first, the wild beasts will be 
completely annihilated, a process that is now in active operation; 
second, the working animals will be allowed to run their species 
out, for lack of employment, as electricity is to be the agency of 
all labor and toil in the future; third, the meat producing animals, 
whose flesh is now used for food, will be allowed to die out for 
reasons to be stated hereinafter; fourth, the pet animals will cease 
to be important, and they will follow with the others. 

It is easy to understand why man will exterminate savage 
beasts, birds, fish, and reptiles that make his own life unsafe. It is 
also easy to understand why the brutes that perforin his work will 
give way to other agencies. But it needs some investigation of 
the subject to determine why the animals whose flesh we eat will 
be allowed to die out. Any careful observer of the habits of man- 
kind, as disclosed by past and current history, will be quickly con- 
vinced of the fact that the world is eating less flesh to-day than 
it ever did before. The savages of a few hundred years ago sub- 
sisted almost wholly upon flesh; and to the American Indian the 
highest type of bliss and Heaven was the joy of an eternity spent 
in the happy hunting ground, killing and devouring all kinds of 
life. In the Orient, or other climes where flesh is not plentiful, 
the religions of the people very adroitly teach the use of grains 
and other foods from the vegetable kingdom, and the few lambs 
and beeves that are sacrificed to the idols probably find their way 
into the homes of the priests. At all events, the tendency of 



494 



IMMORTALITY 



civilization is to use less meat as the better ideas of living are em- 
braced. The early Puritans were compelled to live almost entirely 
upon what they could kill in those primitive days of New England. 
Daniel Boone and his companions found sustenance in a similar 
kind of food, as they pushed their way to the westward, and sent the 
advance guard of American civilization toward the shores of the 
Mississippi. 

Sooner or later men and women will learn that what is 
eaten determines the nature of the mind, body and character of 
the eater. If we eat hog, we are hog. If we eat beef, we are beef. 
If we eat lamb, we are lamb. If we eat turnips, oats and buckwheat, 
we are coarse, raw and pimply. If we eat the preferred grains, 
we are smooth, fine-built, brainy and healthful in mind, body and 
disposition. It is twenty-five years too soon to preach these truths, 
but even now they are finding their way into the homes of the 
sensible people of our land. In time they will be universally ac- 
cepted and adopted. A half century hence, the good ladies and 
gentlemen of that day, grown into white-haired grandparents, will 
gather their children about them, and tell of their ancestors, not 
two generations back, who actually ate life, who took into their 
stomachs the flesh of creatures, such as beef and lamb, just like the 
flesh of human beings: and the grandchildren, listening, will shud- 
der at the thought of those savage natures from which they were 
sprung. 

It is easy to prove that much of the disease and tendencies 
toward a brutal disposition are caught from the flesh that is eaten. 
If the habit of meat-eating were discarded entirely, we should 
have less need of police regulations to curb the criminal disposi- 
tions that are now so actively at work; the nervous system would 
rarely pass out of our control, the mind would rise rapidly in the 
scale of rank for clearness and strength, and every morbid inclina- 
tion would pass away. All this is known to-day; but the difficulty 
to be overcome is the finding of a suitable substitute for the im- 
mediate strength that is obtained from good meat. When this is 
found, the problem will be solved. It is well known that the 
preferred grains carry all these possibilities, and that from them 
must come the ideal food of the future; but it must be had in cer- 
tain methods of preparation, or perhaps in some composite mix- 
ture that shall be most palatable. 

In fifty years every animal species of every kind and 



HEAVEN ON EARTH 



495 



character could be easily exterminated; in fact, the entire animal 
kingdom, including all the fowl of the air and ground, all the 
fish of the waters, and all the species of the land, could be brought 
to a quick and consummate end. Then the vitality which they 
possess, and which they absorb from the present fund of vitality, 
would, by the law of equilibrium, pass into the human body, and 
add to its value as an organism of life. This of itself is an im- 
portant fact. Another phase of the question is even more interest- 
ing. Present investigations indicate that all insect life is nurtured 
in the excretions of animals, birds and fish. Flies, mosquitoes, 
gnats, fleas, and all the troublesome brood, are very likely de- 
pendent upon such life for their own support and sustenance. 
More than that, the opinion is rapidly gaining ground among the 
most expert scientists, that all bacilli and bacteria of disease are 
nurtured in the excretions of the animal kingdom below man. So 
much already has been ascertained that it may be set down as one 
of the chief facts of the close future that, if the whole animal king- 
dom, except man, should be exterminated, all disease germs would 
disappear. 

If this is SO it is not difficult to catch a glimpse of the next 
great leap in the progress of man on earth. In the matter of dis- 
ease alone, we quickly see the logic of the claim. It is well known 
that the germs of an infectious malady must find in the body a 
suitable soil, a depleted vitality, and an ingress. If any one of 
these essentials be lacking, then disease cannot gain a foothold in 
the human system. We will suppose the ingress obtained, and 
the low vitality to exist; but yet there must be the soil in which 
the bacilli may live, grow and thrive. Such a soil is always ani- 
mal, and is made up of the excretions of some kind of animal life. 
We eat daily such food, perhaps, as meat, butter, eggs and milk, all 
part of the animal kingdom, and all highly recommended by the 
best physicians. The Ealston idea is not one of sudden or radical 
change, but at first a compromise with the good and bad, in order 
that they may meet more readily. For this reason, meat is recom- 
mended, especially that of the beef and lamb, if the fibre is omitted 
or reduced to a comparatively harmless state. Eggs, milk, butter 
and honey are also recommended, although they belong to the 
animal kingdom. Like fish, they are less injurious than the 
strong meats, eaten with the full fibre. It is in steps of compro- 
mise that Ealstonism is achieving its most notable victories. 



496 



IMMORTALITY 



Knowledge will come by and by. Milk will be discarded 

last. Next before it will come butter. Eggs, now the staple of 
many a meal, are under suspicion even at this writing. For ages 
they have been conceded to be among the best of the preferred 
foods, having not too much of the animal to produce the injurious 
effects of meat; but the distinction is now being made between 
meat-fed and grain-fed eggs. One of the oldest principles of food 
related to the question of eating meat that was fed upon meat. It 
seems that God warned the ancient Hebrews against such danger. 
Yet the hen that runs about the land, picking up worms, bugs and 
insects of every kind that can be found, is a meat eating fowl, and 
the eggs that she lays must be subject to the same objection that 
was lodged against the unclean animals of the past. Following 
out this idea through a long line of effective experiments, it is 
now a well established fact that such eggs are unfit to be eaten. 
Their most virulent tendency is in the direction of stimulating 
cancers to grow; and we have some startling annals, taken from the 
lives of those who have died of cancers, showing certain of them 
to have been egg eaters. In one series of cases, we find that a 
man, who ate six eggs daily, died of a cancer which developed sud- 
denly; his mother, father, sister and brother all dying from the 
same cause, and all being egg eaters, often partaking of them three 
times a day. Going back of these facts, it appeared that the eggs 
came from their farms, where the hens had been allowed to roam 
at will, following cattle and swine, running over ploughed ground, 
and having full liberty in the potato patch and among the vege- 
tables, where worms, bugs and insects innumerable were eaten; it 
being the theory of the farmers that hens needed little or no grain 
if they could get worms, potato bugs and other life about the place. 
This bit of history would hardly be sufficient to make out a case 
even of partial proof, were it not for the fact that other instances 
have come forward in the way of corroboration. Yet there are 
many deaths from cancers, probably, where eggs have not been 
used as food. The fact that most interests us is the part that such 
eggs as we have described must be playing to-day in the ravages 
of disease among mankind. 

The intelligence of the race will one day drive the entire 
animal kingdom from the face of the globe. It is a great step; but 
it will be taken; and, with all that is contained therein will go also 
every insect, every kind of vermin, and every disease germ. We 



HEAVEN ON EARTH 



497 



believe the whole family to be interrelated and corelated in every 
possible way; and the larger species cannot go miles- all the mi- 
croscopic species will go with them. When humanity ceases to eat 
meat, it will be a new family of beings, different in disposition, 
and more noble in cast. When this new family is the sole tenant 
of the globe, with a higher grade of vitalit}', and a worthier motive 
for living, then something will be seen of the possibilities of ad- 
vancement nnder the inspiration of Caucasian leadership. The 
few, though exceedingly important, changes thus far indicated may 
not occur in hundreds of years, but they will come in time. They 
are possible in the next quarter of a century, but when probable 
we cannot say. 

Man's mind is given him by the sun's vitality under tlx 
direction of the Creator. The character, the disposition and the 
vitality of the body bear close ties of relationship. If we live in 
a dungeon, deprived of sunlight, the mind gives way; moroseness 
follows; and every vital center is depressed. Much of our motive-, 
and much of our ambitions and desires, are born under the in- 
spiration of the sun. It is ever changing and ever progressing. 
Some day it will implant in the universal mind of man the wish 
to exterminate the entire animal kingdom below himself; and God 
is now at work to run out the anti-racials; which, being done, man 
will step at once into a higher plane. But, before this occurs, the 
plunge will be taken, and the several problems of this our day will 
be solved in blood and death. 

The Immortals will arise from their sleep like exhalations 
from the ground. They will be born out of the body of humanity, 
but will come forth as suddenly and as mystifyingly as did the 
Caucasians. No one knows from what source we sprung. All the 
revelations of geology point to the barbarian, or the brute savage, 
but never to the man of our race. There is not one trace of him 
back of six or seven thousand years ago. He came forth in 
mystery. He arose from the lap of earth like the vapors of a spring 
morning. The Indians are older than he is. The Negroes are 
older than he is. The Malays are older than he is. The Mongols 
are older than he is. The child of the Caucasus is the youngest 
in the family of humans. Whence came he? No one knows. It 
is quite easily proved that his anti-racial predecessors were on 
earth many thousands of years before he appeared; but, on the 
contrary, it is just as easily proved that he came to earth within 
six or seven thousand years. 



498 



IMMORTALITY 



Our claim is that he sprang forth like exhalations from 

the ground, although he was born in the womb of some human. It 
may be true that a single pair was so created, or that a family was 
thus born; and from them came all the white race. If so,. were they 
generated in Malays, Indians, Mongols, or Negroes; for all of these 
preceded the Caucasians? It would seem as if the old Egyptians, 
who had migrated from their home into Asia, may have been used 
to translate the seed to earth. While it would be possible with a 
God who was able to make a blade of grass to grow, to bring a white 
family into existence without the aid of other human beings for 
parents, we prefer to believe that the}' came in the regular way, 
even as Christ passed through the flesh into a mortal body. But 
we do not think the Caucasians were sprung generally from a 
large parentage, for the reason that one mother and one father 
might produce the heads of this entire race. 

Let us assume that, about six thousand years ago, the 
time was ripe for the white family to come upon earth; and that 
a certain family in Asia had been entrusted with the important 
duty. Let us suppose that the parents gave birth to twelve chil- 
dren, of whom six were girls, and six were boys. When they ma- 
tured, instead of marrying one another, they may have been wedded 
to the best anti-racials about them. Their children, being half- 
breeds, would marry cousins, and thus the true Caucasian life 
would be established; assuming, of course, that the Creator so in- 
tended, and gave to the grandchildren the same care that was be- 
stowed upon the first parents. In the fourth generation there 
could have been one thousand pure Caucasians on earth; and in 
two hundred years, fifty millions might have appeared; a good be- 
ginning in the dawning decade of our race. It might then be said 
that they arose like exhalations from the ground. 

The past lends light for the future. What has onc e 
been done, may occur again. Let us step into that era when 
humanity is all there is left of the animal kingdom. The anti- 
racials, dwindling under the decree of Heaven, are no more. Cau- 
casian man is alone on earth, and is supreme in his ascendency. 
Stimulated by better judgment, the race has grown better. God's 
will, decreed in His own works, has been obeyed by man in elim- 
inating those who are of criminal tendencies or insane heritage; 
using emasculation to cut off all their possible descendants. In 
this way the race has been wonderfully elevated and ennobled, 



HEAVEN ON EARTH 



499 



although all this has in the renaissance that followed the final 
plunge. Now all is ripe for the uprising of the [mmortals. Just 
how they will reappear upon earth it is hard to say; but it might 
seem as if they would be born into new beings through the ordinary 
processes of pregnancy. Opposed to this* is the possibility that they 
will arise like exhalations from the ground. It is ail in the realm 
of the unknown. 

It is probable that many millions will enter into that 
perfect state, following the laws laid down by nature. It is not 
possible that all who have lived will reappear on earth. In each of 
the six thousand years, millions have died. In these sixty centuries, 
if we accept the conservative statement that 10,000,000,000 die in 
every hundred years, we would be confronted with the enormous 
population of 600,000,000,000 persons upon the globe at one 
time, to say nothing of the hordes yet to follow. Such a crowd 
would jostle each other, and become dense in every square mile 
of surface of the entire earth. Estimating them all at the average 
of one per cent., which is about three per cent, of the Caucasians, 
we would have then in this planet three times as many people as 
now exist upon it, which would suffice to fill it. Again we say, 
we are treading in the depths of the unknown. 

In submitting these problems to others, especially to 
those whose opinions seem safest to accept, we find that the follow- 
ing is the ideal process to them of the coming metamorpho>i>. 
When the final plunge has made mankind more determined to rid 
itself of the evils of the world, the remnants of that bloody struggle 
will come forth better prepared to do battle with all the vicissitudes 
of living. The animal kingdom below man will lie exterminated, 
and thereupon all disease will disappear. Then the race of Cau- 
casians will go on multiplying until they are as numerous as now. 
Acting under the will of God, and following the process displayed 
in the birth of Christ, the embryos of all that have been born into 
soul-life during all the centuries since the Caucasian man first came 
into being, will come forth as Christ came forth, through the 
womb of woman, and. so reappear upon earth. Thus it there are 
1,000,000,000 women on earth at that time, and each gives birth 
to six children, the full quota of (5,000,000,000 would come forth, 
including our estimated percentage of the whole scope of lime. 

It is often asked if the anti-racials are to play no part in 
this future denouement. The same question might he asked eon- 



500 



IMMORTALITY 



cerning the vast majority of Caucasians who go down every genera- 
tion into oblivion. Their bodies, like all others, go back to mingle 
with the dust from whence it came; and their spirits return to 
God who gave them; that is, their vitalities go to the general funds 
from which they came; and from these resources they reappear in 
new combinations to live again, until their funds have been con- 
sumed in life. In the final day, if the change shall occur as we 
suggest in outlines of possibility only, the parents of that last gen- 
eration, and all their children, taking on the spirit of metamor- 
phosis, might pass into the state of immortality. 

It should be borne in mind that all humans, including 
the wildest barbarians and savages, even the Mongols, Malays, In- 
dians and Negroes of the darkest and most bloodthirsty eras, are 
given an opportunity of attaining immortality b} r this process of 
return to the funds of matter and vitalit} r , and a reappearance in 
newly combined lives. The plan omits no one; but simply loses the 
identity of all who do not pass through the new birth; while the 
latter are embryos of a life to be developed in that better future. 
If the retention of identity, if the recognition of loved one, and the 
revival of the happinesses that were inspired in this existence arc 
worth hoping for in the next, then the only available method is that 
which gives us the new birth here for the new life hereafter. In 
this way alone is it possible to preserve identity. There is some- 
thing more than speculation in this plan. It is founded upon 
facts that are known and cannot be denied. It is true in all par- 
ticulars, except in the process that will occur at the final change: 
and that is suggested as probable by the facts already at command. 
We know that all humans, when they die, give their material bodies 
back to the fund of matter. We are equally positive that their 
vitalities go, like those of all animals, back to the fund from which 
they came; and all that is left is the disposition of that question 
which relates to the soul-part that may inherit immortality. Under 
the plan suggested, nothing is lost, no one is lost, and all vitality 
enters into eternal existence. There is no other plan that will 
accomplish this universal ascent of life to the plane of perfection. 
While the despicable are destroyed, their matter and vitality live 
on. What destruction may mean to them we shall see. 

It is not necessarily a pleasant contemplation that those 
whose miserable lives are blotted out, will be resolved to their 
funds, and molded into other beings. Scientists agree that this 



HEAVEN ON EARTH 



501 



pioeess occurs in the vegetable world and among all brute-; and 
many of them believe that it includes every human being forever 
in a sort of oblivion. When a life of sin is ended, the spirit or 
mere vitality must be forced to blend with the general fund of 
vitality. This change may or may not invite torture and intense 
suffering. We do not know. There is some evidence of an agony 
at work in the destruction of the spirit. Herein enters a con- 
sideration that is not easily understood, and not easy to explain, 
ft must be remembered that time is of no account, except in the 
activities of open life. A second may in fact become a fixed 
eternity. In a dream the sleeper realizes that the tenths of a sec- 
ond may ripen into days of transactions. Thus the quick pricking 
of a pin into the flesh of a man sets him dreaming. The thrust 
was not more than the tenth of a second in duration, he awoke in 
less than five seconds thereafter; but in that almost unappreciable 
interval he passed through long incidents that seemed to him like 
weeks. 

It is this danger of an eternity of time arising from the 
process of destroying the vitality, with a day or two of attendant 
memory standing still forever, that makes the fear of a miserable 
death abhorrent. To the neutrally deficient individuals, it is 
possible that no post-mortem dreams occur; but the vital spirit 
dissolves, and passes on to its fund. To the wilfully wicked, each 
second may be an eternal dream, having no end; and the memory 
thus freighted with affright may pass off out into space, and 
wander on forever and forever, torn with anguish, and distraught 
with intense suffering. Of this there is some evidence bearing 
upon the act of separating the spirit from the flesh, as depicted in 
another volume of this series. The wilfully wicked die even in 
spirit soon after the body dies; but that troubled dream goes on; 
the memory is lodged in it; and the thinking man or woman of 
this life thinks on in that ghostly vision that will not down. If 
this be true, it proves that the mind is the instrument of evil, and 
the agent of the dark angel; as has been stated in other ehapters 
of this book. 

No more pitiable torment could be suggested or devised 
than that a human being should carry the mind's memory out into 
space in an eternal dream, into which are crowded all the black 
horrors of a hideous hell. Torn and lacerated, stripped of hope, 
blasted by hate, denied all love, sent into racking pains of mind 



502 



IMMORTALITY 



and thought, pulled hither arid thither by demons, blown through 
furnace heat, licked by searing flames, cut by saw-edged knives, 
boiled in nauseous vats, ripped by swords of fire, pinched by hook- 
handed devils, flayed by red-e} T ed fiends, bored by burning irons, 
mauled by mashing hammers, hurled into belching volcanoes, and 
hurried on and on through ceaseless scenes of torturing cruelties, 
the dreamer may experience all the realities of a substantial Ge- 
henna in that deathless memory that may be set in motion by the 
sundering of the vitality from its clod of matter. The prospect is 
uninviting. 

On the other hand when those who prefer a life of perfect 

honesty to all else in this world, have been born again, and their 
identity has been established for all time and all eternity, the first 
suggestions of Heaven and happiness enter their new-made exist- 
ence, and there is no parting from that blessedness in all the asons 
of the future. This experience, as far as it relates to earth, is 
being testified to by millions here to-day. It is well known to 
them, and totally unknown to those whose dreams we have de- 
scribed in the preceding paragraph. When they die, the event is a 
flood of perfect joy; and of this there is positive proof. While a 
long interregnum of time may follow, it is true that time is counted 
as nothing; and, although the soul reposes in that period of years, 
it is like the dreamless sleep to which we go at night, and wake 
from in the morning; it seems the passing of but a minute. 

So when death conies, instead of that awful dream, the 
soul seems to pass instantly into the new earth, and there begin its 
endless round of happiness. It will have much to do, to meet and 
know the great souls that have reached the same state of bliss. It 
may be that the earth will be newly tempered by the relenting sun, 
and all its surface made a pleasant garden. The several thousand 
million beings that have answered the call of their destiny to dwell 
upon it, may become objects of interest, and it might require a 
long succession of centuries to meet and know them all. There 
will be beautiful women, fair and fascinating, whose loves will be 
entwined about our hearts with the garlands of joy they wreathed 
in lesser degree in this life. Perhaps woman's love, typical here, 
may be fully realized there. 

Every human being who has done something for the 
uplifting of mankind, will inherit a place in the eternal realms; 
and the list is a long one. Many centuries before Christ appeared, 



HE Ay EN ON EARTH 



503 



it had swelled into millions; and since then its numbers have been 
steadily growing. We might well expect that the immortal hards 
would be there; Homer, Virgil, Milton, Shakespeare, and thousands 
upon thousands of others; so also the painters, sculptors, orators, 
teachers, heroes, and all who have worked to make the world better; 
for they have labored on under the inspiration of their sub-con- 
scious nature. Imperfections may crowd thick upon the mind and 
flesh; but, so that the soul-part of man is white in its integrity, all 
else is forgotten. It will be a pleasant company. 

The vocations and occupations of that better life, cannot 
be understood from this distance. We may surmise them, but 
cannot know them. Imagine six or seven thousand million people 
occupying this earth from pole to pole, each ensconced in homes 
suited to their separate desires and tastes; the precious metals and 
minerals employed in the structure of them; ornaments of gems 
and jewels everywhere displayed; flowers and foliage, brooks and 
fountains, and all the beauties of nature brought into service to 
give them pleasure; and you will have a possible outline of the op- 
portunities that may invite the attention of the Immortals. If 
any part of this is true in fact or in kind, it is quite likely that each 
individual would wish to know the whole world and all its inhabit- 
ants. No two houses need be alike. With better facilities for 
advancing from place to place, the tour of the longitudes and lati- 
tudes of the earth might require a round million of years, with new 
sights to see, and new places to visit, time without end. 

The mind at its best is a frail and faulty organ, for which 
reason it is very limited in its powers of observation and its means 
yof acquiring knowledge. We know very little. The microscope 
tricks us, for when we increase its diameter of vision,, it presents 
a cloudy blur, and hides the finer structure of the object under 
gaze. The telescope is cut off by the vastness of distance; and man 
is imprisoned on the surface of this globe, utterly unable to ascer- 
tain what the nearest orb may be like, although the little moon is 
but a paltry quarter of a million of miles away. The stars are as 
numerous as the sands of the sea, yet we do not know what they 
'are, nor why they have been created. A man who had spent forty 
years in searching the heavens, said that if death would surely 
bring him knowledge of what space is, and where the orbs cease to 
shine, he would gladly die in an instant. 

A philosopher was once askeel what he deemed the most 



504 



IMMORTALITY 



valuable of all kinds of information that could come to him; and 
he said, "''Tell me wherein is located the force that causes the apple 
to fall to the ground." Tt has never been learned. The fact that 
a silent influence will, through space, bind two bodies together, is 
full of mystery and seems incomprehensible. No more difficult 
problem than that of gravity could arise; and, despite what we know 
of its laws, we know nothing of itself. To our mind the solution of 
the secret force within the cell of protoplasm holds the key to an 
understanding of the whole scheme of life, both in the animal and 
vegetable kingdoms. Once let that be known, and God and man 
will be revealed. As it is, we know nothing of the causes, and 
must content ourselves with a study of effects. What the mind 
cannot grasp in this existence, the soul may be able to acquire in 
the next era. If such may prove to be a part of the future educa- 
tion, then it must be true that there are delights in ample abund- 
ance awaiting those who shall enter upon that broader life. 

In this age of the world man comes and goes like the idly 
drifting breezes of the sky. Perhaps seven out of every hundred 
human beings, under the most favoring circumstances, give birth to 
the soul-embryo; perhaps three; and, in some generations, perhaps 
only one. The others fall like the tree, to mingle with the dust, 
and to be caught up again into new mixtures. The best concep- 
tion of this change is found in the following description of com- 
mon life. From the soil of a certain locality, a tree, a blade of grass, 
a shrub, a fly, a horse, a cat, a dog, and a man are nurtured and 
grown; and it is well known that not an ounce, not a fibre, not an 
atom of the substance of any one of these has received nutrition 
from any other source than the material of earth. The bones, the 
flesh, the muscles, the nerves, the brains of man have come from 
the dust of this planet, just as the tree, the grass, fly, dog, horse 
and bush have come. From dust to dust, is the story of life and 
change. Now they all die. The flesh and wood, and all the sub- 
stance must return to earth. There we see them. There the 
chemist may find them. But they are not idle. To kill them is 
to give them the chance to live again. 

That small percentage which sends forth into a higher 
life the germ of an immortal soul, leaves the body behind; but the 
soul-embryo reposes in the hand of God until it passes by metamor- 
phosis into the new earth; and there its aeons may be spent in 
supreme happiness. This planet, however, is not all of the uni- 



HEAVEN ON EARTH 



505 



verse. There are suns and orbs in every part of space, all probably 
serving their assignments in the general purposes of creation. This 
little earth hears the same relation to the full dimensions of God's 
complete realm that the tiny drop of water hears to the brimming 
ocean. To keep from those who are permitted to live in this com- 
ing epoch, the knowledge of the whole universe, would imply that 
G-od is always to remain concealed from His people; and, for this 
reason, it is logical to assume that there will come a time when 
God's Heaven will he reached. For the sake of comparing these 
conditions, let us sum them up, as follows: 

a. — This existence is mortal; the present earth is its dwelling 
place. 

b. — The next existence is immortal; the new earth is its dwell- 
ing place, and should he called Paradise. 

c. — The final existence is a continuance of the next: and God's 
Heaven is its dwelling place. 

The process of change may be summed up as follows : 

a. — About ninety-seven per cent, of all who live as Caucasian 
beings, merely return to the dust of the earth from which they 
come; and from this dust their particles are caught up again into 
new forms, just as the tree or dog perishes, to live again. 

b. — About three per cent, of those who live as Caucasians are 
"born again/' or give birth to the soul-embryo. 

c. — All anti-racials will ultimately contribute their material to 
the bodies of Caucasians; and all Caucasians who return to dust 
will nltimately contribute their material to those who shall give 
birth to the soul-embryo. This is the story of chemical change 
which is now going on every minute, both in the vegetable and ani- 
mal kingdoms; and it is an admitted fact among all scientists. 

d. — All persons who are pregnant with the sonl-embryo, upon 
dying, pass instantly into the new earth; and this seeming union 
of time and eternit} r may possibly cover a lapse of thousands of 
years, but it will be unknown. Thus, as the eye-lids close in life's 
last sleep, they open at once into the bright and joyous realm whore 
loved ones meet and greet the fortunate soul who comes to the 
abode immortal. The jewelled world teems with glory, and the 
air rings with one bursting song of ecstasy. It is happiness in- 
finite. 

e. — Beyond this new earth, in the palatial residence of God, 
the full fledged soul will eventually find its home. 



5G6 



IMMORTALITY 



Our labors now end, and this volume goes forth upon 
its quiet mission. It is not the work of haste, but bears the stamp 
of arduous toil. It is not the theory of an individual, but the ex- 
pressed opinion of many who have wrestled with the stern facts of 
life. "Whatever may be the fate of this particular work, the laws 
set forth in its pages will come to be recognized in time by all men 
and women who seek to be right. Like the seeds that push their 
way up through the muddy soil until their stems bask in the sun- 
light, these truths will rise above the debris of doubt, the conceit 
of scholastic ignorance, and the soft texture of sentiment; and they 
will stand as fixed monuments of fact, seiwing, like mile-stones, 
to guide the traveler to his joiirnej^s end. 

It is acknowledged by the most sincere ecclesiastics that 
there is something lacking in the administration of religion ; as is 
seen in the disposition which caused millions of human beings to be 
tortured, imprisoned, racked, burnt to death, or otherwise destroyed 
by the holy ministers of God in the ripest age of Christianity; and 
as is also seen in the jealousies and malice that are rife in the 
Church of to-day. We have shown that Christ is the herald of 
immortality; but that His followers are widely astray in their dis- 
pensations of His religion. The time has come to call a halt! Out 
through the murky skies of sham and pretense, the stars of truth 
shine with fixed gaze, piercing the hearts of those who guiltily 
mislead their fellow mortals. Down with creed and all its false- 
hoods: up with the flag of honesty! Down with sectarianism and 
its holy, hollow lies ; and up with the banner of peace ! In every 
church, in every denomination, not more than seven in a hundred 
of those who profess religion are actually in the ranks of the saved ; 
and this fact is so strong in its Gibraltar-like position, so mighty 
as a living truth, that he who runs may read it in the private lives 
of those concerned. Ministers may deny it; antique women may 
throw up their hands in horror; masculine hypocrites may seek 
to impeach the statement; but, squirm as you may, you cannot 
demolish that giant rock. The fact remains. It is more important 
to learn how the condition may be remedied, than to beat your 
head against a fortress of flint. 

With a burning desire to uplift hope in every heart, to 
come into the home life of the discouraged and the depressed, and 
bring the dazzling torch of promise to every man and woman, these 
laws have been crystallized into language, and these truths have 



HEAVEN ON EARTH 



507 



been set forth in the pages of this volume. Facts by thousands 
have heen marshalled along the highways of proof; and with kalei- 
doscopic change they have been made to appear in every dress, 
from every position, at every depth, on every height, around the 
whole broad continent of science, until the combined assault of the 
armies of evidence have carried the breastworks of the citadel of 
doubt, and planted aloft, amid the highest heavens, the standard 
of immortal truth. 

This life is one broad, shoreless world of magnificenl 
opportunities, that lie about us on every side in time-beaten paths 
whose fixed directions determine our fate for good or bad. Diverg- 
ing, they drive their liberal course through separating fields of 
lessening light and broadening gloom, into the black shadows of 
the night-enveloped horizon. Converging, they meet in the rich 
uplands of that sunlit realm whose glittering dome, burning its 
face against the sky, revels in the blazing glory of eternal light. 
Resolute with the courage of supreme hope, we turn our backs to 
the darkness, and set our eyes upon the goal that shines ahead. 
Upward and onward, in the paths where angels have trailed their 
tracks to earth and led the way again to Heaven, we follow to the 
summit of that sublime height. It matters not by what road we 
ascend the mountain, we shall all meet at the top. 




THE END. 




! 



APR -0 l9'-2 I ' 



